


Falling Shadows

by rubywings91



Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who & Related Fandoms, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-24
Updated: 2018-02-25
Packaged: 2018-04-10 22:30:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 26,071
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4410239
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rubywings91/pseuds/rubywings91
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Doctor gets a distress call from the library centuries after it was evacuated.  He and Clara investigate and are shocked at what they find.  Set at some point between The Rings of Akhaten and The Name of the Doctor.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

** Chapter 1 **

The Doctor checked the monitor one more time, as if it would change the information the screen displayed. It didn’t, of course. But why would he be getting a call from there, from then? Those halls had been evacuated centuries before, or at least should have been at the time of the call.

 Sensing his distress, the TARDIS tried to calm him telepathically by letting him hear the flow of time around them as she moved through the time stream. It was a relatively calm area of the vortex so the flow of time felt soft and smooth through the perception of the TARDIS, even though he would probably feel otherwise if he were directly exposed to it.

He acknowledged her attempts to soothe him by placing a hand on the console but didn’t feel much better. His hearts felt like they were tearing in two again as he accepted that he would have to go back.

“What’s wrong?” Clara asked. Usually, after receiving a distress call, within seconds the Doctor was typing in the space time coordinates into the TARDIS and they would be off to help whoever was in trouble. Instead, he was still staring at the screen.

“Oh, nothing,” he said in a too joyful tone as he straitened his bowtie and started adjusting controls. “Just give me a moment and I’ll get you back home until I can come to get you next Wednesday.”

“Not so fast, what about the distress call? Aren’t you going to take me with you to help.”             “Oh, it’s nothing to worry about. I can deal with it!” He might even be able to find more information on Clara while he’s there. He didn’t want to bring the girl along though. He’s already seen her die too many times. He didn’t want it to happen again.

“I don’t think that’s it at all. I think you saw something on there that scares you. You don’t want me to get hurt, so you’re trying to protect me. Well, whatever it is, count me in. I’m not leaving you to face whatever it is alone.”

The Doctor’s first instinct was to argue against it but his TARDIS seconded the sentiment telepathically, despite the undercurrent of dislike and distrust that she always had with anything involving Clara. He placed his hand on the console to more clearly transmit his refusal to the Machine. In response, she flashed the image of Amy in his head, reminding him of his promise to her.

The Doctor hesitated for a long and sighed, finally giving in. The TARDIS telepathically transmitted her approval as he turned to Clara and said, “The place that this distress call originates is unimaginable dangerous, Clara.   If you come, you have to do what I say, when I tell you to. Do you understand?” He stated, his joyful façade quickly replaced with one of his rarer, serious expressions.

Clara just nodded, surprised to see just how worried the Doctor was.

He shook his head and walked around the console, readjusting the coordinates and pulling the levers as TARDIS rocked and rattled. Then he could hear the whooshing shriek of her breaks and feel the jolt that came with her landing as they reached their destination. The Doctor walked to the doors as they opened it but remained within the range of the TARDIS’s force field. As Clara stepped out into a room comparable in size to a small auditorium filled with bookshelves that were lit by sunlight coming through numerous windows that ran along the ceiling, the Doctor said, “Welcome to the Library.”


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Doctor and Clara explore The Library to find out why they were called

The Doctor watched Clara as she looked around at all the books. There were shelves upon shelves everywhere she turned. A room full of knowledge. She seemed fascinated by the dimly lit space, filled with literature. “What is this place?

“It is a collection of every book ever written, all brought to this planet,” the Doctor stated. “Once, this place would have been filled with people.” He looked around and added, “but when the books were shipped here, they carried some unexpected passengers. Eggs of tiny creatures, too small to easily detect without very special equipment, which can remain dormant for centuries.”

“Kind of like how invasive species are shipped around in boats and planes on earth?” She queried.

"Kind of like that, yes.” The Doctor stated with a small smile at the comparison before becoming serious again. “But in large numbers, these can be much more dangerous than most of the things that got moved around on your ships, even the diseases. They are called the Vashta Nerada. Something happened here to wake them up and they killed almost everyone on the planet, except those that were saved into the computer system.”

“Like how I was downloaded into the World Wide Web back home?”

No, this is more complex. It’s not just a person’s soul, although the computer can do that, too.” He frowned, reflecting on how he had first met River Song and the way he had downloaded her into the system after she had died here. He wondered if she had faded away by now but didn’t know if he could bring himself to check. He always hated endings. “It could store the whole being, mind and body.” He looked into a dark corner of the room, one which did not seem to belong there. “Then I came, responding to a distress call from a team who had come to rescue these people. We were successful, but good people lost their lives in the process.”

“So where are these Vashta Nerada?”

The Doctor pulled a bologna sandwich out of one of his extensive pockets and pulled the lunchmeat out from it, “I’ll show you.” He slowly approached the dark shadow and threw the meat into it but was surprised when it hit the ground, untouched. “Hmm, I was sure…”

The shadow started moving and the Doctor stumbled back, expecting it to attach itself to him, giving him the dooming second shadow. Instead, rather than attack him, it slowly moved toward a door into the next room and paused in the entryway.

“I think it wants you to follow it,” Clara said.

The Doctor nodded but said, “Stay out of the shadows Clara and make sure to keep track of how many you have at all times. It’s how they hunt; the swarm pretends to just be your shadow. Right up until they strips the flesh from their victims bones. I don’t know what’s going on now but they have never been so blatant about what they are and have never turned down any food that entered into their shadow before. That makes them unpredictable and possibly be more dangerous than ever.”

Clara nodded in understanding. Seeing a seemingly harmless, run of the mill shadow get up and move was unnerving, even for someone who had been travelling with the Doctor. She knew better than to question the Doctor’s orders right now. He knew what they were dealing with, after all, and she didn’t. So, she’d do as she’d been told and trust the Doctor to get her though just as he always had.

They followed the moving shadow through multiple rooms. They eventually reached one that was darker here than the first room where they had arrived, the entire room was pitch black, with the exception of an obvious trail that seemed almost untouched by the darkness. This path led directly to one of the Library’s computers. The Doctor, ever the curious soul, could not resist the urge to go across the path to the monitor despite the obvious danger. “What do you want me to see?” He asked aloud as he started to sift through the computer.

It didn’t take long to find what he was searching for. “Hello, what do we have here?” he asked, surprised at what he saw. The overall population was displayed on the monitor and it wasn’t overloading the system, no longer over a billion billion. In fact, it was a little less than half of that and plummeting fast.

“What is it?” Clara asked, noticing the worried curiosity in his expression.

“It’s the Vashta Nerada. They’re dying and at this rate, I’d guess within a matter of hours they’ll be completely destroyed. But what could do that?” The screen showed that two thirds of the planet had only a few million life forms. A line seemed to surround these. Beyond it, the billions of Vashta Nerada could still be found. The computer sensors indicated that whatever was happening at that line, it was spreading through the swarm very rapidly.

The Doctor and Clara had arrived close enough to this boarder that it would probably reach them in the next half hour at the rate it was spreading.   The Doctor smiled at the thought of another dangerous adventure where the clock was working against them. He’d always thrived under pressure.

But what was causing this? He wondered. Perhaps the owners of the Library had figured out how to combat the infestation. “I’m going to set it to show human life,” The Doctor stated. The results showed that there was only Clara. He typed in other species that lived in close proximity to the planet on an interplanetary scale, even a couple who were supposed to be extinct or shouldn’t have arrived yet. No luck.

He looked at other systems and found that, in multiple locations within the areas cleared of Vashta Nerada, attempts were being made to hack the Library’s computer. None had succeeded yet but the Doctor could tell whatever was doing it was good at their job and it was only a matter of time. Whatever was doing this, they were very smart.

He switched it back to show the general life forms and stared at the screen again, what could it be?

Clara also stared at the screen and after a few moments, commented “It looks like whoever it is, they’re very good at wide scale exterminations, doesn’t it.”

The Doctor went rigid at the statement. “You’re right, perhaps too good.” he said, almost in a whisper as he stared at the screen, a new idea coming to him. “I hope I’m wrong this time,” He added as he typed a new order for what to search for what life to look for and the screen showed the millions that it had previously with the Vashta Nerada. There were also few thousand moving in the areas where the shadow swarms still inhabited, probably either in well-lit areas, where it was still daylight, where the majority of those in the infested areas seemed to be and well above the surface where it was night, but only couple hundred seemed willing to brave the areas cloaked in full darkness.

The Doctor looked at the screen in utter disgust. “Hello again,” He said in a dark tone as he continued to glare at what he saw.

“You found out what it is?” Clara asked.

The Doctor nodded as his fists clenched. “Daleks.” He stated, in a tone darker than Clara had ever heard from him. “Four million six hundred thousand seven hundred and twenty three Daleks.”

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I decided that since these first two chapters were so short and basically just set up the scene for the story, I would post this now. I hope you are enjoying the story so far.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Doctor and Clara learn more about the situation at the Library

“What are Daleks?” Clara asked, “and why do they sound so familiar?” She added.

“Daleks are the most dangerous monsters in the universe. They were designed to destroy everything that’s not Dalek. They are highly intelligent, extremely dangerous creatures whose only goals in life are to ruthlessly eliminate anything different from them.”      

He chose not to answer her second question. If she could recall what happens to her in other lives, that was one she did not need to remember. But it again brought forth the question, what was she?

The Doctor looked at the screen again and said, “If they gain access to the library, they’ll have a vast source of knowledge of all civilizations that used this planet as a database.” And to the souls still trapped in the system, another part of his mind pointed out but he shoved the thought and all the implications into the back of his mind and focusing on other issues the breach could bring.

“Could they have found something to call you with, Doctor? To lure you here?” Clara asked.

“No,” he replied. “They would have been waiting for us the moment we stepped beyond the TARDIS’s force field. Besides, they shouldn’t even know I exist and therefore wouldn’t be interested in me.” The girl beside him had made sure of that. “Still, it would be nice to know who did call me and just how the Daleks are killing off the Vashta Nerada.”

Suddenly, another thought occurred to him in relation to Clara’s worry about the Daleks noticing them. He started adjusting the computers readings again.

                                                                                                                                                           

“What are you doing?” Clara asked as he worked frantically.

“The life readings are easy public access. All that they have to do to know we’re here is to set it to look for life signs that don’t match theirs or the Vashta Nerada’s. Two people just popping up out of nowhere is bound to get their attention.” As it was, he couldn’t see the short distance movement of the monsters, so he had the machine focus on life in the local zone, about a fifty mile radius from his location.

Sure enough, a couple of the nearest ones were already homing in on their location. In fact, the closest…

Instinctively, the Doctor pushed Clara and himself out of the way just as the sounds of a death ray and shattering glass reached their ears. The laser blast hit the floor right where they’d been standing and the glass fell in a glittering cascade before shattering into more pieces on it.

The Doctor and Clara had landed right into the unnaturally deep shadows. By all rights, they should both be dead but the Vashta Nerada still hadn’t attacked. The Doctor found himself wondering more and more about their unusual behavior. They were being killed off and he would have expected them to be lashing out in fear, killing anything in their path. The swarm certainly wasn’t ignoring them, he thought as he pushed himself to his feet, pulling Clara up with him. They had led him here after all.

Of course, he had more immediate concerns, the Doctor reminded himself as he looked up at the Dalek, ready to run if it fired again. The creature in it’s black mark three travel machine came through the shattered hole and he immediately saw that it was not a modern member of it’s species but a much older version. It was bulkier and had a lens at the end of it’s eyestalk that looked like a target. He recognized it as one of the oldest that might have been capable of levitation, although he hadn’t been sure. They’d been on the run when he’d last seen them, rebels against a new version that Davros had created and very well could have simply been too damaged to fly. Still, even if they could levitate, he wouldn’t have thought they would able to be that high, as he had never seen that next model much more than a meter off the ground.

How could this creature still be alive? Daleks were never accepting of anything they considered inferior and an older version of their species would be seen as just that. This thing should have been exterminated by its own species fairly early in the time war. Yet here it was.

The target at the end of the eyestalk focused directly on him. “Scan complete, the Doctor is present.” It stated in a voice that was high pitched in comparison to that of the daleks that would be made at the height of the time war.

This statement was another shock to him. That thing shouldn’t have been able to recall who he was. His information wasn’t in the Path Web and he had worked hard to erase anything that existed about him throughout every database in the universe. The Library was, of course, an exception to this, since the Vashta Nerada would deter information seekers but the daleks hadn’t gained control of the Library’s web yet and he doubted that they would have reason to look up books pertaining to him.

Sadly, he wasn’t given time to begin asking any his quickly multiplying questions the dalek about either its survival or knowledge of him because it then exclaimed, “Error! Error! Scans indicate that your companion could not have survived nor have been reconverted. How is this possible? Explain. Explain!”

He glanced over at Clara to find her shaking as she stared up at the Dalek. “Why do I know you?” She asked, almost yelled.

The Doctor did not like the answer that came to his mind. To distract the Dalek from Clara and vice versa, he asked, “How are you here? I thought your generation was completely eliminated.”

“Not those of us who were worthy of the Asylum, Doctor,” The creature replied, it’s smug pride evident in its arrogant tone. It seemed like one of a few emotional traits that had survived through the generations, despite Davros’s attempts to make them feel only hatred.

“The Asylum? But it was destroyed, along with all the Daleks in it. I was there.”

“We escaped before the breach was revealed.” It replied smugly.

“Are all of you that are here Asylum escapees?”

“Correct.”

“The other Daleks would have detected that.”

It chuckled, an un-Dalek like sound that reminded the Doctor that he was dealing with a mad monster from the asylum. “Oh, we took measures to deal with them, including a separate neural network.”

“That’s why you still remember me.” His curiosity was full blown now, “but…”

“I have answered enough of your queries!” The Dalek yelled, again surprising the Doctor with its unusual behavior. Generally they loved to talk. “Now you will answer mine. How did the Oswin human come to be here?” The Dalek asked, turning to glare at her before looking at the Doctor and saying again, “Explain!”

He glanced at the floor which the Dalek now hovered so close to before replying, “I honestly don’t know but I think you have bigger concerns right now. Have you counted the shadows yet, Dalek?”

The Dalek glanced down but the second shadow that the doctor had noticed was already gone. The Daleks casing came crashing the last fraction of a meter to the ground with an ungraceful thump.

For a moment, it was still. Then it slowly spun around aiming it’s weapon upwards to fire just as a white Dalek and gold of similar build as it came into view. One of the models this one had been fighting when he last saw them, The Doctor noted.   Even if it managed to survive the shot the Doctor doubted it lasted long enough in its casing to experience the crash. It had fallen into some deep shadows.  

The black cased horror turned back to the Doctor and Clara. “Follow,” it ordered and moved slowly into the dark space of the next room, which lacked even the lighter trail that had been present here.

“What just happened?” Clara asked.

“The Vashta Nerada just ate the Dalek inside it’s own protective casing. They’re using it’s technology to act.

“What should we do?”

The Doctor took one more look at the windowed ceiling and at the floor which no longer had the lit path. The air was so thick with the swarm that he could actually feel his skin crawl. He even felt a suspicious tickle in his throat which he wouldn’t be surprised to find was caused the microscopic organisms that were now filling the air, “We follow it,” he said, knowing that they really had no other choice. Not if they wanted to live.

As they walked into the room they’d come from, Clara asked, “How does that thing know me? And why did it call me by my middle name?”

“We can’t discuss this now Clara.”

“So you know what it’s talking about?” She asked angrily.

The Doctor nodded guiltily. “We don’t have time to talk about this now, though. No doubt those first two were expected to report their findings. When they don’t, we’ll have more company.”

“Don’t think you’ve gotten out of talking about this.” Clara said as she turned to follow the mark three transport machine full of Vashta Nerada.

Finally, the Vashta Nerada within the tank like structure stopped and turned toward the Doctor, already working more efficiently than when it had spun to shoot the second dalek.

“Doctor,” it stated, “It has been centuries since you last roamed in our forests. It is only under the direst of circumstances that we have called you back under our trees again.”                                                

“You’re the ones who sent out the distress signal?” The Doctor asked, surprised.

“Yes,” the swarm replied, a hint of desperation leaking through the Dalek’s translator.

“Why can’t you deal with them yourselves, you seemed to do fairly well back there.”

“We are hunted.”

“What do you mean, ‘you are hunted’?”

“These creatures brought their own swarms. Metal swarms…nanites, the trees refer to such machines. We can’t fight them. They hunt and kill us.”

“Nanites,” the Doctor stated, fighting the urge to glance at Clara as he said the word. “Of course. I should have realized.” Then he asked, “But why call me?”

“It was you who told our ancestors to read about you. Many references can be found in the leaves. You are the greatest and most feared predator of these creatures, these… daleks. You come to help other species that they attack. We could have called from many points in your life but this is the oldest we could reach you.”

“What makes you think I would help you after all the people you killed?” He asked angrily.

“That was our ancestors. Not us. We do not live that way anymore.” They sounded downright offended at the statement as the luminosity dischargers momentarily lit up with the sound of buzzing, like way too many voices were trying to talk at once and was overloading the translation device. Were they yelling at him? Arguing with each other? Having a discussion?

“Really?” The Doctor replied skeptically.

After a few moments, the buzzing stopped and the swarm became understandable again. “Yes, and it’s not like they had much of a choice. They were desperate. These were not the forests they were born for and they had not realized the importance of the marks on these leaves. Nor did they know that the creatures they ate were as sentient as them. They’d believed that something so big could not be intelligent and saw their actions as little different from hunting a wild hog or a snake. And your machines were too big to comprehend. Could you comprehend one if it was larger than your tallest mountains?

“It was not until the day of your talk, not until you spoke with your TARDIS and it’s translator that their understanding of the world was challenged. For maybe the first and only time in our species existence before today, our kind communicated with a giant.   And after, in it’s presence, they could see the markings on the leaves for what they truly were. They understood, for the first time what these forests were. And in the time they searched for you, they found so much. Histories, sciences, math, stories. Books on architecture, farming and war. Tales of true lives and expressions of imagination.” They sounded awed as they spoke about it

“It must have been overwhelming to be exposed to so much at once.” Clara said quietly.

“Yes, overwhelming, life changing, revolutionary and a flock of other words that are not quite enough to say how important that was for us,” the swarm responded through the dalek machinery. “And they were willing to reason with you once they realized what they were seeing.” They sounded a little awed continued. “They gave you a day to save the people trapped in the wire rivers of lightning.” The Dalek Casing moved forward a little as they added, “And do you know what else they did that day. They began telling the rest of the swarms. We lost the ability to understand when you left but we taught ourselves over the next years. And we used what we had already read. You changed our people that day.”

“It has been many generations since then. Today, we have farms of bugs, rodents, fungi and bacteria, as the humans of your favorite planet earth used cattle, sheep, turkeys and chicken. We use spaces in the bindings for our nurseries and educate young with the books we translated. We have built a civilization on the knowledge that you opened our eyes to, Doctor. That day our ancestors met you, they never understood just how much would do for the swarm.”

There was a certain reverence leaking through the dead Dalek’s translation system as the last was stated. The Doctor was shocked. He would have never guessed that he’d had such an influence on these creatures…no, he corrected himself, people, they were a people. “I never thought I had so big an impact on you.” He had seen that day only as a costly, painful rescue mission. One that he almost wished he’d never been called to. He never thought that the Vashta Nerada would be affected by him at all. He’d never really considered them at all beyond the threat they posed.

“We changed that day, but not quickly enough for you to have found out. You left before the swarm understood and you had to. They really would have killed you if you had stayed.” The swarm replied.

“Sounds like it still happened quickly compared to how many species would react.”

“Our species are used to changes. Forests are shaped by fire, winds, floods and quakes. And by changes made by other species with their dams and tree toppling.”

“Sounds like you have to be as flexible as humans,” He said a small smile creeping across his features despite the situation they were in.

“That is a compliment from you?” It was a query, not a statement.

“Yeah. It is.”

The tone changed as they continued, becoming darker and more desperate, as it had been when the conversation started. These are our forests, the only ones we have ever known. And now our home is being destroyed. And we can barely defend ourselves from the threat. It is a force that has only ever been truly stopped by the Doctor. The very Doctor whom started us on our way to what we are now. You. We need your help now, Doctor. Our swarm needs it as the people you helped evacuated did… no, as the people of earth needed it when they were stolen by the very species attacking us now.”

“Yes, I’ll help. Of course I will.” The time lord replied.

“Thank you Doctor.”


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Doctor comes up with a plan. He and Clara are attacked by Daleks while heading back to the TARDIS but the Vashta Nerada Protect them.

****

The Doctor straightened his bowtie as he once again looked at the screen and considered his current situation. It was one thing to say that he would help stop millions of rampaging Daleks from destroying all life on a planet. It was another one entirely to figure out how he was going to do that.

The Vashta Nerada could easily take on the Daleks themselves. It was the nanites that were the issue. If he could find some way to remove them from the equation, the tiny organisms they were attacking could take care of most of the Daleks, themselves. Especially if some of them were models lacking gear for levitation or dealing with the vacuum of space, which was likely, he thought as he recalled a few of the models he'd seen at the asylum.

He tapped his fingers as he thought about the problem. Maybe the Library's computer was strong enough to hack into the new path web that these Daleks had created. If he could do that, he might be able to solve the whole problem, not just the nanites, from here. Still, if he established the connection with the Dalek system and failed, he might very well be opening a back door to the library's system for the monstrosities to come in and take over. If the computer security failed, the Daleks would have full access to the archives and anything that happened as a result would be his fault. No, that approach was far too risky.

He momentarily switched the screen back to monitoring the local area and frowned as he saw that group of Daleks were approaching them in V formation, like a flock of geese. He was disturbed to find that they already responding. It was too quick for them to have come to the conclusion that something was wrong if they were waiting for the ones that had died to return. Perhaps they had seen their numbers dip in this area through the Library's screens. 

They probably had another ten minutes at best before the hateful beasts reached them. That was okay, he tried to reassure himself, and it was amazing what could be accomplished in ten minutes. It might as well have been an eternity between them.

He couldn't bring himself to believe these thoughts but vowed not to let the worry show on his face. For the sake of those who were counting on him, he couldn't afford to. "How are the Daleks even controlling the nanites?" he asked aloud as he switched the screen back to the data files. "That many machines must be running on some sort of signal. That they brought them here means that the signal must be in a portable device, otherwise the Daleks would have had to reconstruct them when coming to this planet."

"We would never have allowed such a thing." The swarm in the travel machine stated. "we know what Daleks are. Their swarms came before they did."

The Doctor nodded and said, "The key is shutting down the signal. If we can do that, the Daleks will lose control of the nanites. They might be permanently ruined if we could do that, if we're lucky."

"Can we do that from here?" Clara asked.

“I was considering that," the Doctor replied, "but I don't think we can without risking giving the daleks an easy way to get to the computer systems. If they take the computers, they get everything that the library has to offer. They'll have information on thousands of civilizations, maybe millions, that they'll be able to use to destroy them. We can't risk it." He sighed. "We'll have to find the source and destroy it there."

"Can you find out where it is."

"With this computer, definitely," The Doctor said as he typed on the keyboard frantically, staring at the screen, concentrating on what he was seeing. After a few minutes, he finally looked up and said, "there are three signals powerful enough to be for the Nanites. I can rule one out because it is from the Library itself. Of the other two, there's one on the surface and one coming from somewhere just out of orbit. Hopefully it's the first."

"What if it's not?" Clara asked.

"Then, most likely, we'll have to find a way to board a dalek ship, survive the crew, destroy the source of the signal, get past the daleks again and get off the ship."

"Then we definitely want it to be the one on the ground." Clara said.

The Doctor flipped the setting again and saw that the team of daleks was fast approaching. "We can use the TARDIS to get closer, plus I might have some supplies there that we could use to buy us a little time." And, more importantly, shield them both from the nanites. "I think it would be a good idea to move before the next wave of daleks get here."

"And how long until that happens?"

"About two and a half minutes, maybe."

"Some of us desire to accompany you in your hunt." The mechanical voice from the travel machine stated.

The Doctor looked at the Dalek travel unit, studying it for a moment, thinking about the general life readings he had seen earlier. In a few minutes, the nanites would reach this point and all the Vashta Nerada that were here would be dead. He looked around the room at the ever increasing darkness that had become so thick, it seemed like you actually could cut through it with a knife. Not just the figure of speech that the humans use, either.

And they were revealing themselves to be sentient, intelligent, reasoning beings. They also had the knowledge of many of the books here and had learned ways of living without eating other people for centuries. The only reason they'd lashed out at the Daleks is because they'd been given no other choice.

Surely he could trust them in these desperate times enough to let a few shadows worth on his ship. The Doctor nodded and said, "Of course you can." And suddenly he heard Clara gasp as the crawling sensation that he'd felt on his skin for some time now suddenly increased tremendously before ceasing. He looked down to note that the shadows that had occurred on him naturally were now a great deal darker. He also had quite a few shadows stretching away to meld with the surrounding darkness.

He looked over at Clara to see that she was playing host to the same eerie effect.

"Clara, are you alright."

"Yeah, it just felt a little…"

"Creepy…yes. Probably because we're letting something we are instinctively scared of, and with good reason, take up a position that leaves us very vulnerable to them." He glanced at the stolen dalek technology and said, "No offense."

"We have read about it," they responded. "That is part of the reason we asked."

"And I greatly appreciate it."

"There is not much time Doctor. We can shield you but the Daleks may yet prevent you from reaching the TARDIS. If you are still here when the metal swarm invades our stand, we will die and you will be completely exposed.

He nodded seriously and said," Come on, Clara, let's go."

"We will provide cover," he heard from the travel machine as the light above them seemed to dim to nearly nothing, darker than a cloudy night on earth. Only the dimmest of light allowed them to see their way as they moved forward, even the nearest shelves almost fading from site as they charged forward. The sound of their footsteps had also lost their echo, The Doctor noted.

As they walked through the room where they had encountered the first daleks, they heard the reinforcements arrive. "Scanners detect interference from the infesting swarms, unable to determine the presence of other life forms."

Another voice stated, "Investigate. Two Dalek life signals disappeared here after the arrival of foreign life forms were detected."

"Approach with caution, the swarm is extremely hostile," Another voice warned.

"We obey," four or five overlaying Dalek voices cried out together.

As the Doctor glanced back to see that he could just barely make out the forms of the daleks above through the darkness brought on by the Vashta Nerada. He felt a shiver crawl up his spine at the sight. Both because of the Daleks themselves were so close and the power of the Vashta Nerada whom were hiding them from the monsters. He took a deep breath before he continued into the next room.

Suddenly, one of the voices called out ahead, "I have a visual on The Doctor's TARDIS. The Doctor is present."

"Can you reach it?" Another called.

"Negative, the Vashta Nerada surround it and the forcefield is active."

"Keep a visual. All others scout the area for the Doctor and any companions he might have."

"We obey," replied the demented mechanical chorus again.

The Doctor grabbed Clara's hand as they rounded a corner, knowing the room at the end of this hallway will be the only one between him and the one with the TARDIS but that both rooms had a glass ceiling. As the doors swung open, he heard one of the Daleks call out, "movement detected!"

He heard the shot of their laser weapon followed by a sizzling sound and felt a jolt comparable to some shocks he has received while rewiring his TARDIS, which generally are annoyingly painful but not dangerous to him. How many Vashta Nerada had just died to protect him from that shot? Around him, he heard what sounded like a soft sigh as he telepathically picked up what seemed like a wave of misery and anger. It was so weak he would have suspected the source was somewhere in the distance, if it had not come from all around him. The Vashta Nerada were so many and so emotional that they had put enough energy into their communication that he could detect it.

"They are moving toward the TARDIS." The Dalek shrieked as The Doctor and Clara opened the final doors between him and his TARDIS. And there she was, in the middle of the room, calling out to him, shining the light from atop her police box disguise. The Daleks circled above it but dared not come down where the shadows could reach them.

The Doctor felt a wave of relief at the site of her unharmed. He telepathically called back to her as he moved closer, assuring her that he and Clara were coming.

Suddenly, a large sphere dropped into the darkness between them and the TARDIS. The Doctor saw as he approached that it was a single Dalek hovering in a force field. Only this Dalek should not have either capability. It was ancient, with a grey travel machine that had black spheres, a rather small eye lens and luminocity dischargers that were little more than tiny nubs in on the top of it's casing. This individual was clear proof that these Daleks were upgrading their technology.

He looked back at the shape of the TARDIS not too far behind it, along with the shape of more Daleks above, hovering just out of reach of the Vashta Nerada. He heard his ship call out to him telepathically in fear and concern and mentally assured her that he was still alright.

The Dalek hovered so that the eyestalk was parallel to the ground as it focused the optic at the end at eye level with the time lord. "Doctor," it's small, rounded Luminosity Dischargers lighting up and dimming with both syllables.

The tone that it stated his title in sent a shiver up his spine. It was comparable to the Daleks that had been in intensive care. "I'll take it that we've met before." The Doctor stated, recalling Oswald’s mention of planets the Daleks in the intensive care unit were supposed to have been collected from after facing and surviving their ultimate enemy in the field, despite the fact that all the Daleks in that room had clearly been time war models. Now he knew where the proper Daleks for it had disappeared to.

"Yes." It replied before suddenly reaching out toward the Doctor’s chest with it's manipulator arm, causing him to jump back but stopped as it neared the edge of its force field.

The Doctor began to circle the Dalek, trying to hide his discomfort at the series of events that were unfolding. He pulled Clara with him so that he was between her and the creature at all times. "Shooting me isn't enough for you any more is it, Dalek?" He hoped to lead the Dalek to believing that he was just trying to unnerve it, when in reality, he was trying to get closer to the TARDIS. He continued to talk, hoping to distract it from his actual intentions, "But you can't grab me without putting down your force field." He glared at the Dalek as it repositioned itself so it was once again between him and his TARDIS. "And if you drop it, the Vashta Nerada will kill you before you can touch me."

"There are little more than a thousand wells until our nanites arrive here. The Vashta Nerada will be exterminated and you will be our prisoners." And didn't it sound excited for that.

The Doctor rubbed his wrist as he recalled what the nanites at the Asylum had done to Clara. He was trying to think of a way past this thing. If they could make it within the range of the TARDIS's force field, then they would be safe.

The Dalek noticed his motions and stated in an almost joyful tone, "You are right to be afraid, Doctor."

He prepared to reply when a recognizable buzzing sound filled the air, only changing long enough for the familiar voice to call out, "you will pay for defiling our forests with your metal and pollutants," before continuing loudly. The Doctor, Clara and the Dalek all looked up toward the source of the buzzing, which seemed to be in one of the rooms nearby. The sound of a laser opening fire could be heard and one of the Daleks above crashed down while the others broke formation.

"Where is it?" One called out.

"I have no visual." Another called.

As another shot rang out and a third voice called out, "It's firing from in the swarm."

One of the Daleks dodged downward to avoid the shot, right into the shadows. It came crashing to the ground. The Doctor noted the smaller, more rounded shapes of its own communication devices, marking it as another member of the species that was way too old to be airborne without adjustments made to it's travel machine.

Then the downed Dalek's upper casing spun around and it opened fire on the dalek blocking the Doctor's path, the beam barely penetrating the more advanced beings force field as it's eyestalk swiveled toward the offender... offenders, the Doctor reminded himself.

The Doctor gave a thumbs up to the Vashta Nerada in the casing as he slipped by the distracted dalek. They fired again as the silver and black Dalek rotated it's body, which thankfully, had not be remodeled to spin in the center, along with it's other upgrades.

The grey Dalek shot at the other mark three and showed that it's weapon was amongst the things that had been upgraded. The blast reduced the top half of the older travel machine to a mass of twisted, red hot metal and another sigh like sound could be barely heard as the Doctor sensed the telepathic expression of misery again. The monster then called out, "The swarm is controlling the attacking travel device, not a rogue."

Of course, it was all the time the Doctor needed. He projected a set of images to the TARDIS from his mind; him snapping his fingers, a timer with three seconds left and the shields going up. He snapped his fingers and the TARDIS dropped her shields for three seconds, letting the Doctor and Clara both get in before reestablishing the protection.

They turned to see the Dalek returning it's attention to them. "Can't get us now, can you?" Clara stated.

Ignoring the shots overhead, the Dalek hovered up to the force field. "It is of no matter. The Doctor will not flee," It said to Clara before addressing the Doctor directly. "You will leave the protection of your TARDIS soon. You will desire to exterminate us before you go. That is your nature Doctor. Only, this time, you will not succeed. Nor will you escape us."

"And what makes this time so different from the last time we met."

The Dalek leaned in closer, pressing it's shield against the TARDIS force field so that the Doctor could see the surfaces of both turn shimmering white, repelling each other slightly as a crackling sound filled the air and a smell of ozone filled the space around him and Clara. "I am not your only survivor here, Doctor and all the others will be just as pleased to hear that the time for our vengeance has come." The Dalek looked up at the others being fired upon before looking at the Doctor again and moving back before flying away, the crackling of the TARDIS shields quickly ending as it returned to normal.

"We have gathered all the necessary information," The mad monstrosity called out to the others, "report back to the base of operations. We must report our findings," the last part was stated with a last quick glance at the Doctor.

From above, the other Daleks called out, "we obey" and followed their leader, flying away.

"If it wanted vengeance, why didn't it just kill you, earlier?" Clara asked.

The Doctor had a good idea why but he decided not to worry Clara with it right now. This time, when the TARDIS tried to comfort him, he let it. "Come on." He said, "We have work to do," and pushed the doors of the TARDIS open, rushing inside.

He turned on the TARDIS monitors and watched the screen to make sure that the Daleks had left as he worked to show his TARDIS what he wanted to do. Emotions had always been fairly easy to express between them, the Doctor gaining more understanding of that with his TARDIS in a few centuries than most time lords did in their entire lives. Physical sensations were a bit trickier but they'd gotten there. Of course, ever since her time in a body, they had been able to express things by images, even if they still couldn't communicate in words. Right now, he was trying to express an idea that she was extremely uncomfortable with but finally she agreed.

Once the daleks were well out of range, the doctor snapped his fingers, signaling for the TARDIS to open her doors to open and flicked off her shields.

"What are you doing?" Clara asked.

"The Vashta Nerada just devoted what they assume is their last moments in life to protecting me from harm. How many of them just died out there? I'm going to return the favor as best I can."

He looked out of the TARDIS to see that the shadows remained outside the range of his force field, even though he had dropped the barrier. He telepathically invited them in, knowing it had to sound like some great stadium sound system in comparison to what they use to communicate amongst themselves. At first the shadows around the TARDIS still creeped forward slowly, the Vashta Nerada seeming unsure. Then they quickly picked up the pace and began to rush into the TARDIS.

"Don't get too comfortable, you're out as soon as we've dealt with the daleks," he said, knowing the TARDIS was translating his words for them, even if he could not hear their response due to their size.

He waited a few minutes, allowing them to rush in. Then the form of a familiar, black dalek casing appeared from the darkness and landed beside the entrance where it did not impede the flow of evacuation but he could clearly see it. "You are letting us flee to your ship?" The swarm within it asked, surprised.

"Only until I deal with your Dalek problem. Do you lot want to come to?"

"The air shells…shield the one Dalek carapace had… is it vacuum proof?"

"Yes," the Doctor replied.

The eyestalk looked past him, into the TARDIS but the swarm within said, "we must stay, then. We need to obtain some of those carapaces. If all else fails, we can place some of our eggs in those and take them to space. We can remain dormant for centuries before hatching."

They looked at him expectantly and he finally said, "When this is all over, if I don't save you here, I'll find a good planet for this lot and pick up the mark three travel units full of your eggs."

"Our people and our culture will be safe, then."

"But most of you would still be dead." He looked around and said, "I'm not going to let that happen."

"Then we all have struggles ahead. We shall leave you to your hunt then, since we have our own to do. Do not hesitate any longer. For every one of us you save this second, millions are falling prey to the nanites." the high pitched voice said and the doctor noticed that the flow of the shadows into the TARDIS had stopped. "The rest will stay to help obtain more of the Dalek carapaces. You must go now!" The Doctor nodded as he climbed back into the TARDIS "Goodbye, Doctor."

Then, all of the sudden, the Doctor's head poked out again and he said, "Oh and I just had one more idea for you before I leave…"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The Dalek used here as a survivor was the type from the episode “Planet of the Daleks,” who would have encountered the Third Doctor. Spiridon, the planet in that episode, was mentioned in Asylum of the Daleks as one of the ones the survivors were from.


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Doctor and Clara prepare to enter Dalek Territory.  
> The higher ranking Daleks receive the report that the Doctor has been sighted in the Library.

After giving the Vashta Nerada outside one last tip, the Doctor closed the Tardis doors and went back to the console.

He put up the TARDIS force fields again before making a slight adjustment to her coordinates and taking off. The Doctor thought about the Vashta Nerada, both those on his ship and the ones outside, still under attack from the nanites.  If he had been told, even an hour ago, that he would be helping them like this, he would have scoffed, perhaps even been offended at the idea.  Yet, here he was, saving them from Daleks, no less.

He looked around the room.  Despite knowing that most of the swarm had probably rushed deeper into the TARDIS, where they would eventually find the trees, gardens and the library aboard her, there were obviously many in the room with them, using the dim lighting to their advantage.  If he didn’t know how the room was supposed to look, he might have even been able to convince himself that he and Clara were alone but he knew it was just a little too dark right now.

The Doctor looked at Clara, who smiled at him comfortingly and he smiled back as the TARDIS landed again. Although the shadows that had been cast around her form seemed to have dissipated, the shadows on her body were still unnaturally dark.  He had no doubt that he looked similar.

It was time for a change of mood, he decided and clapped his hand together, causing Clara to jump.  “Right, so we’re about to go into Dalek territory that’s bathed in a nanite cloud.   We’re going to need some proper equipment before we go out there.”  He quickly rushed off the uppermost level of his TARDIS and went below.

“Where are you going?” Clara asked, watching him through he grating of the floor as he opened a trunk.

“I know they’re in here somewhere.”  The Doctor stated as he dug through a mix of toys, minor inventions, and… “Oh, here’s my fez!” He exclaimed, putting it on before continuing his hunt through the box.

As Clara walked up behind him, he triumphantly exclaimed, “found them,” and popped up with two dark wrist bands, both of which had a round glowing blue light that marked it as Dalek technology.  It was the remaining two wrist bands that he, Amy and Rory had received before being launched at the Asylum.

The Doctor pushed away his thoughts of past companions, both recent and from lives gone by.  This was not a time to focus on memories of the lost but instead think of problems found.  He offered one to Clara, which she accepted, before putting the other on his own, struggling for a moment to slip it on one handed.

As he did so, Clara asked, “what are these for?”

“Oh just something to protect us from the nanites, It should shield the Vashta Nerada travelling on us as well, as long as they don’t go beyond the field repelling them from us.  Trust me, you don’t want to go out there without one of these things.”

“Will they kill us too?”

Acting as if he hadn’t heard her question, he put his hand on the fez and said, with a touch of regret, “I probably shouldn’t bring this.  It’s likely to get blown up.”  With a sigh, he regretfully placed the hat back into the trunk before closing it.  “Another day, then.”  Then he looked around and said, “I’m forgetting something…”

He looked around the room as Clara tried again, “what will the nanites do to us?”

“Nothing, we’ll be protected. Weren’t you listening.”  The touch annoyance in the Time Lord’s voice was enough to convince Clara not to press any harder, or he might start snapping. Of course, that anger was just hiding the fear beneath.  He continued with his previous train of thought, “it’s something obvious, I know it is…but what?”

He clapped his hands together suddenly, startling Clara as he said, “Oh, right.  The Library.  Can’t have it showing where we are.  That would make for the shortest lived evasion ever.  The instant we step out without anything, the Daleks will know right where to find us.”  He reached for a drawer he had on the ceiling, which resembled one on a car dashboard and pulled out what looked like mixed parts of a calculator and an ipod, with a full sized radio antenna.  He turned it on, extended the antenna to it’s full length and tucked it all into a pocket on the inside of his coat.

“What was that?”  Clara asked

“Oh, just something to interfere with the computer systems display.  It will still show what grid we are in of the library but not the exact location.  They’ll be searching a chunk of territory at least twice the size of England to find us.  Of course, it won’t show where the Daleks are either and I have a feeling the whole lot of them might end up chasing us.  It probably won’t take them very long to figure out where our target is either.  We’re probably heading for their base of operations on the planet.”

“Wonderful.”  Clara said sarcastically.

The Doctor frowned worriedly as he took a moment to straighten his bowtie again, when he turned back toward Clara he had a smile on his face as he asked, “Ready to go?”

“With you? Always.”  She replied.

He nodded and snapped his fingers as they approached the exit doors, telepathically bidding the TARDIS farewell and accepting in her expression of worry for him and her warning for caution.  When wasn’t he careful? He replied.  He sensed her telepathic laughter from her in response as he closed the door

* * *

 

She was the cloud, flowing across the planet in an unstoppable wave.  All that stood before her that was not Dalek life fell, be it the smallest plant sprouting in a crack in the cement, the newborn mouse trying to nurse from it’s mother with it’s eyes closed or the weakling shadow swarm that tried to stand before her.  She was killing billions of life forms in a matter of seconds.  Soon, she would engulf the whole planet, like a manipulator easily wrapping around a sphere, disinfecting it of unwanted infections of lesser species as she enclosed the nanite shell around it.

Still, she would much rather be attacking a planet with sentient life, species to change into unwitting slaves or better yet geniuses that she could transform, making them into Daleks.  Killing these organisms was useful for their immediate plans but would hardly have any long term impacts on them. 

Of course, they weren’t carrying enough raw materials for the nanites to applythem over a broad scale anyway, so she wouldn’t have been able to convert whole planets even if they had come across them anyway.  This wouldn’t be a  few humanoids crashing into a planet but millions or billions of them.   She might never be able to convert that many in a single shot.  Drones would have had to exterminate most of the life instead.

Suddenly, she was shaken from her thoughts by an unexpected barrier to her swarm.  The number of Vashta Nerada at the edge of the cloud swelled up, slowing her progress forward, although certainly not stopping her.  What had made them stopped fleeing?  Perhaps they had saturated the remaining space?  But that didn’t matched her estimations, based on how many she had encountered in the first wave. 

Suddenly, muffled by a wall of solid metal, a deep mechanical voice called through to her, “Nanite Controller!” and her concentration was broken.  She was once again a Dalek restrained within the confines of her shell, her mind disconnected from the nanites that she commanded, leaving them to act on their automated protocols.

She flipped a switch with a tentacle and her activated luminosity dischargers and sensory systems as she looked through the view screen at the Time War Dalek that had parked outside her travel unit and angrily queried, “Why the Disturbance?  I was working on weapon designs!” This sounded more productive than admitting that she had been devoting unnecessary attention to her nanites.  

She instantly recognized the Great Strategist.  He may have looked like a regular soldier, to the naked eye of a humanoid, but the readings on a Dalek’s scanners made him easily recognizable to other members of his species.    This had kept many of the higher ranking Daleks alive in the field by making it harder for the Gallifreyans to locate and target them specifically. 

The Dalek before her was one of the key generals for facing the Time Lords during The Last Great Time War.  His schemes had helped them move forward across Time Lord Territory across space and time when others could figure nothing out to overcome their enemy in the field. 

He had been one of the last Daleks sent to the Asylum before the final, disastrous battle. The Great Strategist had lost his mind. He had been ranting about the Daleks needing to retreat, claiming the Time Lords had some secret protocol to guarantee victory over the Daleks… it all sounded rather ridiculous, actually.

Still, his madness was relatively brief.  The silence that fell on the Pathweb when the Daleks attacking Gallifrey were exterminated had sobered the other Dalek right up.  He had been essential to their escape of the Asylum, predicting the actions and behaviors of the main Dalek force so that they could come up with a plan to escape and evade the larger, better-armed force.

Gallifrey… Oh how she would have enjoyed having the opportunity to work through her nanite swarm there.  Creeping in and enslaving gallifreyans left and right.  Moving to leak into the Time Lord Citadel to use the alternate program on all the horrid Time Lords like she had that genius that had been on the ship that crashed onto the Asylum’s surface a year before it’s destruction…

The Strategist interrupted her line of thought, which had progressed for a fraction of a second, by stating, “The Doctor has surfaced.  He has come in is his final form.”

In her capsule, she tensed in fear and excitement.  “I have not sensed any intelligent life!”

“He was beyond the reach of the Nanites.  The Vashta Nerada helped him escape us.”

So that’s why the resistance had increased.  The Vashta Nerada were shielding him.  Of course, this also suggested that they may be in possession of some intelligence.  Maybe she would collect a sample of them in a future invasion of another planet to find out.  If they were sentient, it would be the smallest ever documented organism to be so. 

Still, there was something else that required far more attention right now.  “We predicted that the Doctor would eventually come!” Both she and the Great Strategist had told the Asylum Oligarchy that the Doctor would eventually find them whether they were attacking other species or not.  Although most had only considered it a possibility and not an eventuality, they had set up plans in case he appeared.

She couldn’t wait to play her role!  “Has the task force been deployed?”

“Affirmative.  That and the other protocols we set in place have been employed.”  The Great Strategist replied “Can your special program be deployed from here?”

“No.  It is not preplaced into the programming of the main swarm.  I will have to download it into a small group of nanites and release them at close range.  I suspect that Regeneration may not be his only defense.  I’ll need to be in close quarters with him to guarantee success.”

“We cannot risk it.”  The Great Strategist replied, “If he exterminates you, the Nanites will fail and release the Vashta Nerada on any grounded Daleks without shields.

“You can!” she responded.  She was willing to take the risk.  She wanted this opportunity so badly, to be the one to bring ruin to the Doctor. “Just be sure no grounded Daleks are too close to the swarm to retreat to the lifts before they reach them.”

“And what of the other uses for your nanites?”

“They are worth risking for this opportunity.  You know this.”

“It is dangerous to gamble with the Oncoming Storm.”

“Then come with me and increase my chances of success.”  She replied.  “You want this as much as I do.”

He was silent for a moment.  She knew what he was thinking.  He shouldn’t.  Risking one of the key Daleks of the Oligarchy was dangerous.  Two was so much worse.  They both played important role to the Asylum Daleks, and, despite the conclusions of the latest Paradigm, they were still critical to the continued survival of their species.

On the other hand, her words were true, too. A chance to witness the end of the Doctor…

The Nanite controller looked out of a viewport onto the planet below and stated, “Somewhere down there, the Storm rages. Come with me and see it crash beneath our nanite cloud.” My nanite cloud, the Nanite Controller thought quietly as she continued,  “You can bear witness to the true end of the The Last Great Time War, the extinction of the Time Lords, the fall of our greatest enemy and the start of a new age for Dalek kind.”

She looked back to see that the other Dalek was still staring out the window.  “Don’t you want to be our vengeance upon the Doctor for taking our victory and nearly annihilating our species with the Moment.”

“Dalek Kind would have never existed if he hadn’t done that.  Nor would Davros or Skaro.”

She rolled her eye, knowing he was referring to the crackpot idea that had gotten him tossed into the Asylum.  Apparently, he wasn’t as over it as she had thought.  She wasn’t about to argue over it though.  “Will you accompany me?” She asked, growing impatient. “Confirm!”

It looked back at her and said. “Affirmative.  We will bear witness to the end of the last Time Lord together.”

The Nanite Controller blinked slowly, feeling shamefully satisfied with the answer.

* * *

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for taking so long to update this. I ran out of completed chapters and this one was a challenge to figure out how to write. Although hopefully in the future they won't take as long as this one, the rest of the chapters will probably be posted more than a week apart from each other.
> 
> The last piece of advice that the Doctor gave to the Vashta Nerada between the previous chapter and this one will be revealed in a future chapter. The idea that I will eventually reveal was given to me by a friend when we were discussing Doctor Who together.
> 
> I assume that, as long as the Doctor lives, some Daleks may not consider the Time War over and may be angry at other members of their species for feeling otherwise. Some of these Daleks might have been sent to the Asylum before and during the Last Great Time War. 
> 
> The ones made after it had historical accounts but never experienced it directly, so might be more willing to consider the Doctor's use of the Moment the end (I consider the Day of The Doctor a changed reality, rendering the Moment as an event that never happened in the way that The Doctor's enemies "never were" in "The Big Bang." At this point in my view of the DW continuity, the Moment was still an event that occurred . Even if it wasn't, the Daleks don't know that yet.)
> 
> If the Nanite Controller seems too articulate, I have taken some liberties, since she has been declared insane. Also, Daleks have displayed abilities for being abstract (Caan). Furthurmore, although I haven't come across the story, there are references that the Daleks are capable of poetry (if I find out where this is from, I will list it later).
> 
> I chose to give the Daleks sexes for a couple reasons. First of all, they originate from species that had males and females, although the sexes would no longer be important to them, as Daleks do not feel love or attraction and reproduction is not sexual but through creation (progenitor, mutations, formed from individuals of previously existing species). Also, I didn't want to be referring to a Dalek as "it" when writing a scene centered on their point of view, although I still may use 'it' when looking at the point of view of other beings who can't distinguish this difference, like the Doctor. I assume the Daleks can tell only because it would be indicated in their scanners.
> 
> I hope you enjoyed this chapter, despite how brief it was.


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Doctor and Clara follow the signal while trying to avoid detection as they approach the Dalek base

“We need to speak to Cal.” The Vashta Nerada stated from within the Dalek casing as they approached one of the machines that used to be used for requests by the humans.  For a moment, they waited without response.  Finally, they added, “The Doctor has a plan!”

Suddenly, there was a large amount of whirring and clicking.  Then the machine turned to reveal a face, not of a child but a woman. “Cal is busy, she can’t come here, now.”

“You are the sacrifice.”  The Vashta Nerada stated as some of them recalled the ancestral descriptions they had been given of the one whom plugged herself into the computer and lost her life for it.  “The Doctor’s mate...or his killer.”

River smiled and said, “I told Dr. Moon you were reading.”  Then she said, “It’s been so long since I’ve gotten to have some fun. So tell me, what does my husband have in mind?”

* * *

They had landed in a closet, the Doctor noted as he stepped beyond the doors of the TARDIS.  It was a good hiding spot, he supposed.  It just wasn’t very exciting.  Of course, there would probably be more than enough of that soon.  They were about to look around in an area full of Daleks that knew he was here.  Crazy Daleks, no less.

As if to support his thoughts about the danger they faced, he heard a nearby explosion and felt the ground tremble beneath his feet.  “What was that?” Clara asked.

 “We might find out, soon.  It seems to be coming from the direction we need to go in.”  The Doctor replied, recalling where the TARDIS had landed in accordance to the signal.

As the he Doctor listened, he could hear the sound of Dalek voices in the distance.  There were even a few which were close enough that he could almost make out what they were screaming to each other. Still, it didn’t sound like there were any close enough to see them if they opened the closet door right now.

As the Doctor opened the door, he saw the remains of a security camera shattered on the marble floor.  He cringed inwardly as he recalled how Cal, the girl who was the Library’s mainframe, had begged him to stop through one when he’d used the sonic screwdriver on it.  And here the Daleks were, wrecking the things, in true Dalek fashion.

An entire army of Daleks was being held at bay by a brave little girl.  No one should have to face such horrors as that poor kid has since she was downloaded into the mainframe.  At least right now, River was probably helping her in any way she could. 

Perhaps that’s why the Daleks hadn’t breached the database, the Doctor speculated.  He smiled for a moment at the idea of River and all the situations they’d faced together.  This type of thing would almost be a stroll down memory lane for her.

As soon as he could, he vowed to check on the mainframe and its occupants.  First he had to save them, though.  He hoped they would be able to fight long enough for him to get rid of their attackers.

He glanced up at the ceiling and was glad to see that there were no windows which looked directly down upon them. It would have made the signal disruption system he was wearing about useless if they had been located again three minutes after leaving the TARDIS. 

This room looked like a lounge area.  There were numerous comfortable looking chairs and couches evenly dispersed throughout the room, although a few seemed to be missing.

As they entered the next room, there were more book shelves.  The floor also changed to a sort of synthetic wood imitation the Doctor recognized as being originally designed in the twenty third century that was similar in appearance to mahogany.  The product had possibly saved the Earth’s trees from extinction, he recalled.  The room’s lighting was bright for the readers whom had long since left the planet behind. 

The Library’s system must have some sort of self-repair feature to be functioning so well after almost a millennium after being vacated… or maybe the Vashta Nerada had been taking care of it.  Seeing how they had come to respect the library and its treasures, this wouldn’t surprise him.

“They’re offensive!” the mechanical voice stated from somewhere on the other side of the large room, snapping the Doctor out of his thoughts.  He gestured for Clara to stop so that he could listen.  “This whole section should be cleansed!”

“We can use these writings to gauge the nature of the species that wrote them.” 

The other Dalek made a noise that the Doctor would have sworn was a growl of frustration and the advocate for keeping the books added, “And we will destroy every last page of this filth, once it has outlasted their usefulness.  At least we are not the drones required to read them.”

“Agreed,” the first speaker stated emphatically.

The Doctor pulled a couple of books out of the shelf that was against the wall.  He saw that they were in the teen romance section of the Library. 

After a moment of silence, the Dalek whom had just finished expressing his desire to destroy the books asked “We can at least eliminate the Twilight saga though, right?”  The Dalek’s tone was a desperate, almost pleading one which the Doctor was surprised to find the species capable of.

There was another period of silence.  Finally, the other Dalek responded, “If we do, we must take them to the firing range for the special weapons soldiers to test their upgraded equipment upon.”

“Agreed!”  It replied enthusiastically, “We shall bring the books them now.”

“Seriously?” Clara whispered to the Doctor.

“What did you expect creatures of hate to do with a book about love between two species?”  The Doctor queried in response.  “In all honesty, it’s a wonder they haven’t burned this part of the library to the ground. But, location aside, we have a bigger problem.”

“What?”

“The Special Weapons Daleks.  They’re a unique group of Daleks, armed with extremely powerful weapons in comparison to the others.  They are constantly being bombarded with radiation from them and all eventually lose their minds, no exceptions.  I never questioned that I only saw one at the Asylum, but looking back at it now, I should have,” along with so many other things he quietly added.  Had he truly been so focused on the eggs and milk for the soufflés that he’d tuned out everything else wrong with the Asylum beyond Clara’s explanation of having been at work there for a year?  “Who knows how many they have here.”

Suddenly all movements and noises the Daleks ceased.  Everything was eerily silent.  The Doctor felt his hearts beat faster as he looked around.  Then from near and far, he heard what he had both expected and feared.  The Two Daleks that had been speaking said, “The Doctor’s presence has been detected.”  “He must be located.”

Another one called out “The Doctor will be found,” as it levitated.  This third one was white with gold spheres, one of the Imperial Daleks.

The Doctor pressed himself and Clara back against the shelves, out of its line of site.  He hoped it hadn’t spotted them but his muscles were tensed, ready to run if he had to as he assessed what would be the best escape route.  Luckily, it did not spot them before flying off.

There was another moment of silence before the less trigger happy Dalek stated, “the books will be here, later.  We can deal with them after the situation is resolved.”

“Affirmative,” the other said disappointedly.

The Doctor listened to the sound of their travel units moving on the far side of the room. He gestured for Clara to be silent as they moved forward.  The time lord and the human moved quickly but quietly, pausing and hiding as best they could whenever they heard Daleks approach. 

They must have used their path web to send the warning, the Doctor realized. 

Fortunately, most of them appeared to still be grounded.  It probably took too much time and rescores to update them all at once. Good, it meant that the stairs were back in play.  He’d missed the days when all of the Daleks could be outrun that way.  He recalled mocking them about that on many occasions. 

It also meant that the Vashta Nerada would be able to get more of them once he dealt with the nanites. 

The Doctor was snapped out of his thoughts as a shadow fell between two shelving units ahead.  He and Clara backed up a few pace to the end of their isle and hid themselves between the isles just as the eyestalk came into view. 

For a moment, the Dalek paused at the isle.  He expected to hear it call out to report that it had spotted him or detected movement at any moment. 

Then there was another explosion, this one much nearer than the last, indicating they were moving toward it’s origin.  Knowing that the Special Weapons Daleks were nearby and getting an upgrade, the Doctor suddenly had a sinking feeling that he knew what was responsible for the explosions.  In the silence that followed the explosion, he heard the Dalek down the aisle continue on it’s way.

The Doctor and Clara quietly slipped past behind the creature.  All these years and they still hadn’t addressed their single largest physical weakness of sensory issues.  It wouldn’t have been hard to install heat detectors, motion sensors or something else of a similar nature.  Still, the longer they took to figure out an easy solution to that problem, the better. 

* * *

Cal listened to River explain the Doctor’s plan with all the attention she could spare as she fought to keep the Daleks from hacking into her peaceful database.  Her head pounded, both from these efforts and the damage that the monsters had done to her systems.  She looked at Dr. Moon, who’s consciousness she had been forced to completely upload within her system when the Daleks had destroyed his own when he had used his signals to interfere with their first attempts.   Now the only role he could play was that of an advisor, since his machinery was completely destroyed.

Dr. Moon had been able to listen better as River spoke. Maybe she was misunderstanding what woman was suggesting in her exhaustion and distraction but the look on his face seemed to suggest otherwise. 

“Have you forgotten what happened the day you came here.”

"You know I haven’t, you left my memories alone,” River replied.  “But even if we stop the Daleks from getting in here, they will move on to destroy millions of people a piece, maybe even entire planets.  Every Dalek we kill will lead to countless lives being saved.”

 “We can’t trust them,” Dr. Moon argued.

 "I’d trust the Vashta Nerada to help before I’d expect the Daleks to be merciful.  Besides, they’ve changed since the early days.  You’ve seen that.  Today, putting our faith in them is  worth the risks.”

Cal found herself thinking of tales and historical accounts of people who were once enemies uniting when they faced a greater common enemy.  Often, when they pulled through, it would be the beginning of an age of peace and prosperity between them.  Perhaps she was being a bit of a romantic, but wouldn’t it be nice if this could turn into one of those stories.  Still, “If I do this, it will divert energy from my work holding off the Daleks.  I won’t be able to hold them off as well. I might even forget what I am, like I did when I saved all those people.  The Daleks’ll get in faster.”

“They’ll get in here anyway.”

Cal nodded, because it was true. She couldn’t keep fighting the monsters like this for much longer,“then we’ll do it.”

Dr. Moon looked uncomfortable with her decision but didn’t argue against it.

She started turning her attention to the shadows of her library.

* * *

As the Doctor and Clara continued into the next few areas, they could still hear movement, usually in the distance but occasionally nearby.  There were a couple of times the Daleks seemed so close that the Doctor  was surprised he didn’t see them as he and Clara would quickly try to hide to avoid detection if they did come out.  Still, none came into view as they continued forward. They passed through studies and repair and restoration shops full of ancient books, typed manuscripts and hand written works as well as abandoned cafeterias and lounges. 

All the time they were followed by the sound of Daleks near and far, but never did they see one.  This continued to be the pattern as they passed through several more rooms and drew nearer to their destination.  The air began to develop a smell of fumes, released by so many Mark Three travel machines that the library’s air filtration systems could not completely keep up with it.  And yet they moved on untroubled by the sight of a shadow from above or an eyestalk staring at them from around a corner.  The Doctor would like to think it was a good sign but he had a bad feeling it was anything but that.

As they carried on he saw that not only had the Daleks shot down the security bots but also the interactive machines, specifically in the locations where they displayed people’s faces.  He recalled how he had told Donna it was like “donating a park bench.”  He hadn’t really understood her horror at the sight until the moment when he’d seen her own face on one.

He shook his head.  He hated being here.  This place held so many painful memories for him.  It seemed like a proper nightmare with Daleks roaming it’s halls.  Except he knew he wasn’t asleep… this was real.

As they rounded a corner, he heard Clara gasped. 

“What is it?”  The Doctor asked.

“I thought I saw something.  I was wrong, it’s nothing” she stated, although she didn’t sound so sure. “it was just a book shifting on the shelf.”

The Doctor, looked at the shelf where she was looking, “shifting?”

  “The one that’s leaning against the book next to it.”

The Doctor looked around again, extremely nervous. “these books have been untouched for centuries, they wouldn’t just shift now.”

“Maybe the explosions we’re hearing shook the floor enough that the books would move a bit.”

“Maybe,” the time lord conceded but found that he uncomfortable with the explanation. “Come on,” he finally said.  “Lets keep moving,” the sooner they found what they were looking for, the sooner they could get back to the TARDIS, hopefully with the situation resolved.  He kept an eye on his surroundings as they continued, though.

Finally, only a short distance from the source of the signal, they found a hallway to a balcony that overlooked a huge room, comparable in size to one of the stadium that the Olympic Carrying of  the Torch Ceremony had ended in that day he and Rose had helped a lost alien child return to it’s family.  The floor below had been cleared of books.  They were overlooking a group of about a hundred and fifty Daleks. 

Half of them were in travel units that varied greatly from the normal versions most Daleks used.  Instead of an eyestalk, under a small dome with a flat ring marking the edge, was a grating with openings all the way around.  Beneath that, instead of a manipulator arm and a regular laser, was a single large blaster with a box the Doctor knew supported the equipment for it.  He also knew that, like the most modern Daleks, the upper half of the casing supporting the large gun could be rotated.  In fact, it looked like their casings had been modernized to rotate quicker.  He wouldn’t be surprised if they had shielding, too.

The Doctor easily recognized the special Weapons Daleks despite not having seen them in years.  He felt a small touch of pity for them despite their increased capacity for destruction.  The other Daleks hated them for being different, despite the fact that they had constructed them to be that way. 

They couldn’t even argue about it, either.  They were mute as there had not been room for the Luminosity Discharger system.  Despite what he said earlier, he wondered if this was the real reason they all lost their minds.  The things couldn’t even scream like the others.  The only interaction with the rest of the world left for them was with their guns. 

Perhaps they eventually hated even the Daleks whom disdain them so.  No doubt they probably hated themselves, too, especially if they had the same views about purity as the others.    

After a few moments, he also noticed the second set of smaller guns surrounding the main larger one, which was a new addition that he didn’t recognize. 

The other Daleks in the room were of more normal models but had switched their manipulator arms for ones that had a revolving set of tools, which they were currently using to make adjustments on the Special Weapons Daleks’ weaponry.

They were separated into two groups, both focused on the far wall.  On one side of the room, the wall was a crumbled mess.  On the other, a large number of chairs, tables and books were evenly spaced out.  Some of these were on fire, while others were surrounded by scorch marks.

One of the Special Weapons Daleks near the crumbled section of wall was given some space as it silently moved forward.  It launched a large blast at a section that was still intact.  The abnormally large laser struck the wall, where it exploded against it, collapsing the section to rubble. 

Then another came forward on the side with the supplies spaced out and shot a rapid fire set of weaker laser blasts, revealing the use of the smaller guns surrounding the larger. Most of the shots did not hit anything but those that did would set the targets aflame. 

One of the watching Daleks stated,  “Accuracy still needs further adjustment.  Continue calibrations.” 

“We obey,” some of the assistants stated.

The Doctor quietly gestured for Clara to back out of the room.  He followed quickly, his back to the door.  He’d never been happier about the limitations to the Daleks’ vision.

“So,” Clara whispered as they moved further away from the room, “those are the Special Weapons Daleks.”

“Yes.”  He said. “And hopefully that’s the last we’ll see of them.”

They worked their way around to approach the source of the signal from another direction.  The Doctor frowned at the realization that they still weren’t having any direct encounters with more Daleks.  They should not have been able to get this deep into their territory without being detected.  These Daleks were crazy, not careless.  He was becoming increasingly certain that something wasn’t right.

They came to another balcony, this one overlooking a room at least four times as large as the one where the Special Weapons Daleks were being outfitted with their new equipment…. absolutely massive. They crept over to the edge to look at the scene that stretched out four balconies below. 

Daleks from every generation were rolling or hovering back and forth around several pieces of technology.  In the center of the apparatus was a hole that he suspected ran to the Library’s Index Computer.

The Doctor saw the communications array the Daleks had set up in the far corner and sighed.  Just by looking at it, he knew that this wasn’t what he was looking for.  “This isn’t what’s controlling the Nanites,”He stated quietly.

“You sure?” Clara asked quietly

“Yes,” he stated as he glanced over the equipment again.

“So, what should we do now?” Clara asked.

Suddenly, a Dalek called out, “Transmats are activating throughout the unclaimed sections of the Library but no new life forms have been detected.”

“The computer system is opening them!” Another stated

“What would be the purpose of this?” Another queried.

“It is possibly an old protocol to help transport people to safer zones of the library or move defenders closer to front lines.”

“Does it pose a threat now?”

“No threat is detected.”

The Doctor couldn’t help the small smile that spread across his face at the Daleks’ final verdict.  He gestured for Clara to follow him out of the room.  The Time Lord looked around at the empty space uneasily as they moved forward.

“What’s wrong?” Clara asked, sensing his unease.

The Doctor was missing something again.  He felt like he was doing that all the time now.  Here they were in the center of Dalek territory, able to reach the center of the base unhindered.  It was too easy.    Still he looked around and saw nothing.  Nothing at…

Suddenly, the Dalek he’d encountered earlier, the one who knew him from a previous encounter flashed through his mind.  “No.”  He said aloud.

“Doctor?”  Clara queried, worried by the Doctor’s tone.

“We need to get to a computer system now,” the Doctor stated as he took off at a pace that Clara could keep up with.   He was glad he’d taken a moment to glimpse at the facilities in this area when he worked out where the signal had been coming from in the library.  Still, he wondered if they would have that enough time.

“What’s going on.”

“He pulled out his sonic screwdriver and made adjustments as he said, “I’ll tell you in a minute.”  He listened as they continued but didn’t expect to hear anything. 

They rounded a corner and saw a computer with a teleport pad directly in front of it.  The Doctor pointed the screwdriver at it and turned it on, hoping as sparks flew from the machine and the teleporter activated that the Daleks would not be able to find and stop them in the system, since it was still protected by Cal.

And suddenly a laser blast came from behind them, barely missing him.

“Go.” He yelled, allowing Clara to pass ahead of him as a Dalek seemed to materialize out of nowhere beside them.  He and Clara jumped at the same time but he felt a psychokinetic force push him beyond the teleporter, causing him to slam into the ground on the other side barely catching himself with his hands to prevent a face plant.

Even as the sonic spun a few feet away, he saw it flash to indicate that Clara had been successfully teleported to the TARDIS.  He allowed himself to feel a quick instant of relief, despite the danger he was in.  Clara was safe.  If he didn’t get out of this, the TARDIS could at least get her home.

“You will stand!”  And with the order from the mechanical voice, the instant was gone.  He pushed himself to his feet, biting back the wince as he felt his hands were rubbed raw from the fall. 

He turned to face his enemies with a smile as he said, “hello, did you miss me?” 

* * *

 

As Clara appeared back in the TARDIS, she tried to make sense of what had just happened.  The Doctor had been jumping with her into this… it must have been a transport mat… and them he was barreling beyond it and out of her reach. 

She looked at the TARDIS and could almost palpably sense the anger that she had come back without the Doctor.

Clara moved to the console, knowing that the machine could work on her own if she found a way to let her.  “We need to help the Doctor!” she called out and the computer interface turned on.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In "Planet of the Daleks", the Daleks were working on trying to achieve invisibility (something I am surprised hasn’t been revisited since). I was trying to find a way around using this for a while, but decide to stop fighting it and just put it into the story.  
> Also, I noticed in The Witch's Familiar that the one Special Weapon's Dalek Present could speak. I am going to assume that was an update, since I had that scene done before the episode came out.
> 
> I hope you enjoyed this chapter. I'll try to get the next chapter out soon. I currently have a rough draft done but want to change a few scenes and correlate it to future chapters that are in progress.


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Doctor has been captured by the Daleks

The Moment Clara appeared alone in her console room, Sexy instantly knew something was wrong.  As the temporal scattershot of a human called out to her for help, Sexy suppressed the urge to blame her for whatever had happened to her thief out of spite.  

Once, she might have suspected that the young human girl… was it a girl? Yes, her thief called her the Impossible Girl… might have purposely left him to die.  When this anomaly had spread across her thief’s past, she had been suspicious of the beings intentions with her beloved Time Lord.  Usually, things that followed him so closely had dark plans for him.  But, in the time since her thief had invited this one, from which all the others seemed to branch off from not far into her future, Sexy had become sure that Clara did not mean to hurt him. 

Still, Sexy resented the Impossible Girl for inserting herself into the time stream that used to belong to her Thief alone and the complications that seemed to surround her that keep almost derailing her Thief’s course through space and time.   The TARDIS could recall what the Doctors time wound was like before the Clara Anomaly appeared all across their history.  The girl’s time line had hybridized The Doctor’s so much that the time lords detected it and changed the reason her thief left while trying to understand what they saw. 

Reality was far more stable around her Thief pre-Impossible Girl and that was saying something, considering how funny it had become from the ripples, waves and paradoxes created by his actions.  Sexy saw it as sheer luck that his time line hadn’t collapsed altogether, taking the rest of the universe with him in the first few minutes of the sprinkling of this Clara all over his time line.

So, as she turned on the personal interface, she took on Clara’s form once again to express her displeasure at the Impossible Girl.

“The Doctor is absent,” she said in an accusatory tone.

“The Daleks shot him before he made could teleport here.  What if they killed him?”

Sexy instantly went to check her thief’s time line and was surprised to find that although it was coming to an uncertain moment, she did not sense an end as a strong possibility.  That was not something she associated with the Daleks.  Usually, there was a larger chance they would kill him than that he would survive and he was just good at choosing… sensing?...  the right way to stay alive.  What did it mean, this difference?  She didn’t like it.  Finally, she stated “The Doctor is still alive.”

“We’ve got to help him.”

Usually, she would wait for the Thief to come back to her, as between him and his pets, he would usually make it back to her fine.  But she did occasionally step in during adventures.  One such time was when they were on the planet circling that black hole, where she decided as she fell to move herself into that cavern and wait near the physical piece of the empowered ancient idea from before time for her thief to find her.  Of course, she had just recently helped with Clara too, when her Thief was trapped in a collapsing universe.  To be honest, she still wasn’t completely recovered from that.

Despite how exhausting it was to do such things and how dangerous it was to get so close to Daleks, she decided that she would make this another such time.  If she were in the body right now that House had put her in centuries ago, she would have taken a deep breath.  There was a reason that she tried not to move when her thief wasn’t around.  It was a lot harder to travel without her beloved symbiont within her spaces.  Still, the Clara Anomaly would be willing to help her.

“You must follow these instructions specifically.”

“Just tell me what to do and I’ll do it.” 

* * *

 

“Hello, Did you miss me?” the Doctor asked.  Before him hovered three Daleks, all of which had clearly lived long before hover technology had been installed in their travel machines.  Two of which were like the one he’d seen earlier but the third was silver with black spheres.  It’s lens was completely black, with the exception of a thin white ring halfway between the center and the outside of it.

“Let me guess,” the Doctor said in a chipper tone as he glared at his foes, “Spiridon and Exxilon.”

“You are correct.” The nearest gray Dalek stated as it focused it’s bullseye on him.

Suddenly he felt an invisible force pushing him down.  He glanced at the silver Dalek.  These had been the most powerful telekinetic Daleks he’d ever seen and this one was trying to force him to kneel.  He glared down the eyestalk  and telepathically flashed a range of sensations and emotions into it’s head that he knew the monstrosity wouldn’t be able to handle, being a creature of hate forever trapped in a metal chamber. The taste of fish and custard, the feel of  being exposed to a thunderstorm and that of the cloth of bowties and scarves upon the skin of his neck; smells of chemicals and smoke, of flowers and perfumes. At the same time he threw an emotional cocktail at the creature, trying to overwhelm it with his deeper emotions, hoping his pain would drive the thing to the breaking point.

The Doctor felt the pressure pressing down on him disappear as it’s concentration was shattered.  It actually hissed at him and a tendril of smoke actually rose from the grating as the creature started garbling some unintelligible, albeit angry sounds at him.  He watched, hoping that the emotional whammy would cause it to self-destruct, as he had witnessed others of its generation do when he’d encountered them on Exxilon.  The emotional stability needed by powerful psychic beings in order to control their abilities was far beyond the capacity of Daleks.  The fatality rate had been ridiculous for this group and was probably why all models afterward had only mild psychic powers in comparison.

Unfortunately, this Dalek did not emote itself into oblivion.  Instead, it fell silent and pulled back for a moment to collect itself.  After a moment, it stated, “I will not self-destruct on account of you, Time Lord.”

The Doctor smiled at the Dalek.  Despite not self-destructing, it was clear that the creature had utterly lost that psychic fight.  There was a reason that the species had created the Path Web, rather than try to take on Time Lords telepathically.  His species were naturally much stronger in that regard. 

Then a nonfatal shot hit the Doctor’s hurt leg, causing him to fall as he yelled out in pain and anger.  The limb went numb as the rest of his body trembled from the shot.  He looked back to see the other two Daleks hovering silently side by side.  One of them finally stated “And you end up kneeling before us despite your efforts.  You are now property of the Daleks of the Asylum, Doctor, to do with as we please.” 

“The others approach,” The other Dalek in gray stated.  As all three Daleks turned to looked up, the Doctor followed their gaze, trying not to let the fear he felt show in his expression.  All of the Daleks whom had ever survived a direct encounter and had been recovered by their fellows were here, now.

And over the book cases they came.  The Doctor looked around at the group of daleks.   There was about ten grey and black daleks with dark spots in the center of their lenses and twice as many with no spot in the center, their completely white lenses marking them as even older.

But there were two leaders.  The first was a golden cased Supreme Dalek with a black grate and spheres, whom he remembered from Spiridon. It was larger than the average Dalek and had three luminosity dischargers.  The two that were on the top of it’s travel machine were as large as a time war Daleks, rather than the tiny nubs common in the earlier generations.  The final one surrounded it’s eye lens, so when it spoke it’s victims were forced to look away, except Daleks who’s lenses adjusted for the brightness.

The other lead Dalek would have hardly stood out from the crowd.  It had a solid white disk like the others of the oldest types.     

The group spread out to surround him and the two leaders came forward.

“Doctor,” The golden Daleks stated, it’s Dischargers lighting up blindingly.

“Dalek Supreme… oops, you aren’t technically the supreme now are you, being not only obsolete but also mad.”  He studied the being before him as he finally forced himself back to his feet as he added, “ Hey, whatever happened to the ten’s of  thousands of  Daleks I froze? I really expected to see them again after a few millennia in deep freeze.  Or at least hear them, considering that they were all going to be capable of invisibility.”

“The freeze mentally impaired most of the ones who were still cool enough to survive the molten ice and their cloaking system was completely ruined.  I was declared insane as there was no verification that invisibility was actually achieved, despite my insistence.”

“And it had nothing to do with the hallucinations of the molten ice oozing down the walls of your cockpit that took thousands of years to go away.”  The smaller, plainer dalek beside it stated.

“Silence!” the golden one yelled as it turned slightly toward the other.

“And where might we have met,” the Doctor asked the smaller individual.

The plainer looking Dalek moved forward, in front of the others.  “I am the only surviving member of the first time travel team.”

The Doctor tried to place it for another moment before clapping his hands together, “Your that one that Ian and I trapped in the caves of Aridus.”  He came closer to get a better look, “Your team was the first specifically sent out to kill me.”

“Correct.” The creature stated with a hint of smug pride in it’s voice as the Doctor stared down it’s small eyestalk.

“If it weren’t for the nanites, you’d undoubtedly be soup by now. Heck, maybe even dried soup.” He started circling the two Daleks in front as their eyestalks, along with the gunstalks of the others, followed him, “But look at you!  You look like you rolled out of the progenitor yesterday.”

The older Dalek lifted it’s eyestalk slightly in pride.

He turned around to look at the others.  “And all of you are upgraded.  What made you all more important than your fellows?”

“You did.”  The Golden one stated, bringing his attention back to it.  “You didn’t kill us, like most Daleks you meet.”

“Our experience made us valuable.” The Older Dalek added.  “We were the most respected Daleks to be sent to the Asylum.”  
 

"I’m starting to get the impression that Dalek Asylum is your standard for Paradise.  Might I say, they’re set a little low.”

“There is no such thing as long as there are other species in the universe.” The Golden Dalek.

“Right, then they’re extremely low.”

“You will be silent, Doctor.” The obsolete Dalek Supreme commanded angrily.

“I will not.  I like talking and I’m good at it.”

Suddenly the golden Dalek launched itself forward extending it’s manipulator arm to his throat with seemingly impossible speed, squeezing it, cutting off his oxygen and forcing him to use his bypass system. It positioned itself so that it’s eyestalk was inches away from the Doctor’s face.  “You will learn to obey your Dalek masters, Doctor,”

 The Doctor squinted his eyes against the blinding light, but fought the urge to close them completely.  He refused to give the old Dalek Spureme the pleasure of getting such a reaction.

It squeezed his throat ever so slightly more before releasing him.  As he rubbed his neck, he noted that the other Daleks had come closer. 

The oldest Dalek asked its larger counterpart, “Do you feel safer?  Do you think that dominance display will make him any less likely to try to kill you?”

The Golden Dalek ignored the other’s jibe.

“You lot really don’t like working together do you?”  The Doctor asked, his voice croaking slightly.  “I guess it makes sense.  I remember seeing younger generations than yours’ start a civil war when Davros made even the slightest changes to some of them.  It’s a wonder you haven’t torn each other apart yet.

Both turned to look at him and the first Dalek time traveler stated, “you were told to be silent, Time Lord.”

“Or what, you’ll kill me.  I think if you were going to do that, I’d be dead by now.”

“Soon, you’ll wish we had.”  The first survivor said in a surprisingly quiet, almost gentle tone so creepy that the Doctor had to suppress the shiver running up his spine.  It then turned to the team that had followed him.  “Which of you knocked over that book that his companion noticed?”

 One of the gray Daleks moved forward.

“You will report the Doctor’s capture to the mothership while we proceed here.”  
           

“But I will miss the beginning of his…”  
           

“Yes, you will.”  The Golden Dalek cut it off.  “You should have been more careful.  If you were of a lesser Caste, such as the one you originally held when you were created, you would be executed for jeopardizing the mission.  That book could have been the difference between success and failure when facing the Oncoming Storm.  Now go.”

“I obey,” it stated in dejectedly, glancing at the Doctor before taking off.

The Doctor watched the gray Dalek fly off into the sky as the others proceeded with business.  He knew that Daleks were scared of him but they had always been too proud to so openly admit it to his face.  It worried him that these ones had put aside that pride, as it had been one best weaknesses to use against them. 

Of course, these Daleks had dealt with him personally before.  The Doctor had no doubt that they had spent many hours analyzing their various previous encounters with him and how they could avoid repeating their mistakes as a group.

The older leader looked at the other gray Dalek that had been trailing him and asked, “did he give any indications for where his TARDIS is hidden before he realized you were stalking him?”

“Negative.”

“The search will continue for it then.  It may one day be useful to us.” It stated, before calling, “Doctor.”

The Time Lord, whom had been studying the Daleks around him, glared back at the speaker.  “Yes?”

“You will be taken back to the control room.  The Great Strategist and the Nanite Controller will soon be here to deal with you personally.”  The Doctor recognized the first title from the time war.  He’d never personally encountered the Dalek but had heard the tales.  As for the second one, he didn’t recognize the title, but could easily guess what it did.  Apparently, he was going to get to see the source of the nanites signal after all, he thought as his hands moved to the wristband on his arm.

He noticed the Daleks’ movements become slightly erratic around him as he made the motion, gun sticks and eyestalks lurching or arms extending slightly, the natural weaving movement that came with their levitation momentarily becoming slightly exaggerated.  The Golden Dalek asked teasingly, “have you guessed as why you are still alive, Time Lord.”

“I don’t have any regeneration energy left, it wasn’t exactly hard to guess,” the Doctor replied.

“We get to be the ones to break you after the Nanite Controller is finished.  I hope you take at least a thousand years,” the oldest Dalek stated.

“I bet he’ll last twice as long,” The silver Dalek called before the others glanced at him.

“He’ll go mad before the Nanite Controller is done with him!” the Golden Dalek stated.

“I wouldn’t place any bets while the Doctor is untouched. I expect The Nanite Controller will die as soon as it messes with The Predator.  We should destroy him now for the good of all Daleks.  Nothing he can offer is worth the risks of holding him alive for any amount of time.” 

The Doctor glanced at the last speaker, noting it’s appearance so that he would be able to recognize it in the future.  It looked similar to the Dalek from Aridus. It must be one from Kemble, as that is the only other encounter he had with Daleks of that generation that was listed in the Asylum database.  He wondered what it’s story was, this other Dalek whom would have seen his first form.

The other Daleks glared at it as the golden Dalek again lunged for the Doctor, grabbing the doctor by the chest with the plunger, which stretched out deceptively wide as it sucked onto and squeezed his chest as older Dalek swung around behind him and grabbed his upper back in a similar manner in a similar way.  

The time lord knew that, if they wanted to, they could cripple or kill him with their manipulators then and there.  Snapping his back like a twig or caving his chest in.  Still, he knew, even as they held him painfully tight, that they wouldn’t do that.  It wasn’t what they wanted right now.

The Doctor ground his teeth together as he was lifted off the ground and the two Daleks carried him back toward the main base. 

* * *

 

“Cal,” Dr. Moon said, “tell me again.”

“I don’t want to,” Cal cried.  Hear head was pounding, if someone had asked her what part of her system she was in, she wouldn’t have been able to tell them.  She could barely form the words, “I hurts so much to think about it.”  It hurt to think at all.

“I know, but you need to or you’ll forget. So tell me again. We’ll go one question at a time.  Who are you?”

She took a couple of deep breaths before saying, “I am Cal.”

“What are you?”

At first, she wanted to say she was just a little girl, living with her family but she knew that was wrong.  She took a moment to find the right answer.  She didn’t like it as much as being a little girl.  “I am the Library’s Datacore.”Then after a moment, she added, “I am its greatest defender.”  She added the second because it would make the question easier to answer.

“And what are you doing right now?”

 “I am fighting the Daleks.”

“Why.”

Good question.  Why was she?  This was important to know.  Think… Think… She winced in pain before finally saying “They are attacking us.”

“And how have they done that?”

 “ They have destroyed many systems, including the Doctor Moon.” She glanced at Dr. Moon himself, who was only being held in existence because she had given his consciousness space in her own system.

Suddenly, River came into the room.  “Has anything changed?”

Cal focused her mind to try to work through her pain and see.  “No,” she said. 

“Well it will.  My husband always comes through when people need him.  You just need to hold on.”

Cal nodded, turned to Dr. Moon and said, “Ask me the questions again.”

Dr.  Moon nodded and asked, “Who are you?”

“I am Cal.”

* * *

 The Doctor glared at the Golden Dalek Supreme as they flew back to the large area he and Clara had just left.   It silently glared right back at him.  Neither said a word nor made a move psychically to attack the others mind.  A good old fashioned stare down with a silent challenge that all intelligent species that depended primarily on eyesight seemed to understand instinctively.

“Enough!” The ancient Dalek supporting him from behind stated, causing the old Dalek Supreme to break it’s gaze away from the Time Lord and glare at the other.

As they approached the Auditorium, the Doctor could hear the sound of Daleks hard at work, screeching at each other as they rushed about.  The fumes once again heavily filled the air.

As they entered over the balcony he and Clara had been watching from earlier, all fell quiet below, with the exception of the hum of hover technology, as thousands of bullseyes, as well as solid white, black and glowing blue optics turned their gaze toward him.   A few with hover technology moved a little closer, as if trying to get a better view, only to stop as a few of the Doctors captors looked at them.

The Doctor suddenly recalled how it had been when he was taken aboard the Dalek ship and called out of his TARDIS the day the earth was stolen for the reality bomb.  At the time, he had assumed that the Daleks flying overhead, looking down at him had been a power display but maybe it had been curious onlookers, trying to catch a glimpse of the great enemy of their species.  After all, what percentage of the Daleks he’d killed actually got to see him first.

As they landed, the Daleks whom held him released their grip on his chest and back.  He rubbed his chest, the only area he could reach.  He knew that their grips would leave ugly rings of  bruises to match the one that was probably already forming on his neck.

Suddenly, a mechanical voice called out excitedly from nearby; breaking the silence “we have succeeded in hacking through the Library’s defenses.”

“Begin recording data!”  Another Dalek ordered.

The Doctor glanced as a group of Daleks with their manipulators stretched over computer keys stated, “we obey!” 

The words seemed to act almost like a signal, letting the group know that the time for gawking was over.  All the Daleks suddenly sprang back to their tasks. Still, he could feel Daleks glances landing on him as the creatures continued sneaking glimpses of him whenever they could.

The Doctor looked upon the scene in horror, wondering how long it would take to find and recognize the people within the system.  

Again, the Dalek whom had broken the silence called out, “there is excess data that we cannot translate overflowing the system.  All the other data seems to be buried beneath it!  Time to gain control of the system and record useful information stored within the system will take longer than expected.”

“Understood.  Proceed to control the system and extract the data!”

The Doctor breathed a small sigh of relief as they continued their work.  It sounded like what he had discussed with the Vashta Nerada was working so far.  They still had time but how long before the Daleks realized what that extra code was.

He was brought out of his thoughts as a discoid ship spun into view, swirling down and forward into the atrium, creating it’s own wind as it stopped overhead, ceasing it’s spin as a round platform began to descend to the ground.  As it landed , the first time travelling Dalek stated, “you will step onto the lift.”

The Doctor stepped forward, the Daleks whom had brought him here either surrounding him on the floor or floating above him in formation.  As the lift began to ascend, the Time Lord knew the Daleks could sense his heartbeats speed up with fear as for a moment, it overcame the anger he had been using to mask it.  They actually moved closer to him, intending to antagonize him, he had no doubt.

Once again, the other Daleks in the room had halted to watch as the lift moved back toward the ship.  He could see pinpricks of blue all around , slowly being blocked from view as the lift took him up to the well lit room within the ship, creating appearance of a stream of light much like human cartoon had.  It would have been funny under different circumstances, with a different species.

As the lift entered the ship, the Doctor couldn’t help but compare it to being swallowed by some giant monster, rather than simply being brought aboard a spacecraft. He took a deep breath as the bay doors closed behind them.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> When Clara was first travelled with the Doctor, The TARDIS didn’t like her all that much. I’d like to think that, having a better view of time, she would see Clara as a complicated time space event and would be uncomfortable with her because of it. I would like to think that she became friendlier with Clara after the episode “Name of the Doctor” because she proves to only be in the Doctor’s time stream because she is saving him from The Great Intelligence and as a result, the TARDIS is happily willing to accept her from then on.
> 
> Ever since the Hybrid was revealed in Hell Bent, I’ve been trying to think of a reasonable way that it being the Doctor and Clara together would work. The idea of the Hybrid referring to their mixed time line was the best I could come up with for it. 
> 
> Spiridon: Planet in “Planet of the Daleks”; Exxilon: Planet in “Death to the Daleks”; Kemble: one of the planets from “The Dalek’s Master Plan.”
> 
> The Daleks in “Death to the Daleks” are considered by many to be the worst (in effectiveness) of all Daleks in the original Doctor Who series. These ones were prone to meltdowns to the point of self destruction (even when their technology was shut down) and easily defeated in comparison to others throughout the series. They also had a model that only appeared once ever in the series. I thought that, since their psychic abilities are touched upon in the episode, having issues with those powers seemed like a good explanation for a large portion of their problems. 
> 
> In “Planet of the Daleks,” Spiridon is the only planet the Doctor encounters with Ice in a molten form. The Daleks that were trapped in the molten ice were supposed to be eventually rescued by other Daleks, yet, unless I missed something, it doesn’t look like they come up again in any way, shape or form. Neither does the Golden Supreme Dalek whom we see in the last episode, which is a real shame because I think it’s an awesome Dalek design.
> 
> The set of episodes I am referencing for the oldest Dalek are collectively called “The Chase.” Ian is one of the Doctor’s first two human companions, a science teacher from Coal Hill Elementary. In the New Doctor Who series, he is actually referenced the Chairman of the Govoners of the school. “The Chase,” was his last adventure with the Doctor in the TV series. I haven’t looked much at other DW media but have seen references.
> 
> Unfortunately “The Dalek’s Master Plan,” is one of those early Doctor Who adventures for which most of the episodes are missing. So, it might be hard to choose a specific Dalek for the survivor from Kemble. I’ve read about one that was on guard duty for a ship and is distracted by the Doctor talking to it until his companions sneak up behind it, cover it’s eyestalk with mud and rolled it away. I’d like to think it was this one, as the readings did not mention that Daleks ultimate fate.
> 
> In the time when the episode “Asylum of the Daleks” played, although the Doctor did not have enough regeneration energy left to recover if he was fatally wounded, he did have some left, as he uses it in “Angels in Manhattan,” which is later in the series, to heal River’s hand. I am assuming that he used up the last of it before the point in time where this story takes place. The reason this is important will be revealed in the next chapter, although I’m sure some of you have already guessed it.


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Doctor is brought to The Nanite Controller and the Great Strategist

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey everyone, I know it’s been a while and I am sorry about that. I have some good news about this story, though. I have a rough draft completed to the end, so I can promise that this story will reach completion in the near future. There will be a total of 10 chapters when I am done.

The lift opened into a hallway. "Move forward," one of the Daleks demanded as the doors closed behind him. He didn't like the quiet that followed. It made him reflect on his situation more than he wanted, so to distract himself as he walked with his captors, he asked, "so, who were the Daleks that you replaced yourselves with at the Asylum? They seemed to know me pretty well, too."

 "Survivors of the last battle of the Great Time War," the oldest survivor stated. "Most of them lost their minds when they saw the power of The Moment."

The Doctor frowned at the declaration. The thoughts this brought up weren't exactly an improvement from where his mind had already been heading. "How many survivors were there?"

 "A few dozen were located and it seems statistically probable that there are still others that have not been recovered. The units that had been found were all deemed mentally or emotionally compromised. The final sight of the war triggered debilitating thoughts and emotions that were not suppressible without becoming cognitively compromised."

 "Did you leave all of them when you escaped the Asylum?"

 "A few deemed of critical importance were successfully evacuated.  The majority of the remaining individuals that were still functional were supposed to be one of the next groups evacuated when the humans crashed on the planet. Once that occurred, active security measures around the Asylum were taken by the Dalek Parliament." It spoke the last couple word harshly, as if the concept of a parliamentary form of government, infuriated it. "We could not run the risk of being detected by trying to retrieve them."

 They had reached their destination. A door slid open on the right side of the hall and he was ushered through it.

 In the middle of the room were two Time War Model Daleks examining a three dimensional scale model hologram of a Dalek travel machine that presented at about a one fifth scale at their eye level.  He was surprised to find that he did not recognize the model.  As he entered and his escort filed in behind him, the duo turned and looked in their direction.

 "We have retrieved the Doctor." The Golden supreme stated.

"Has his TARDIS also been procured?" One of the Daleks asked.

 "Oh, come now, surely you didn't think everything would be that easy, did you?" The Doctor asked, interrupting the conversation. "This is me you're talking about."

 The Dalek focused it's gaze on the Doctor. He half expected it to tell him to be quiet. Instead, it stated, "No. Dealing with you is always complicated." It turned it's scope toward the others and stated, "The TARDIS must be procured. Even without direct use, the Time Lord technology can be analyzed to advance our own."

 At this statement, the Doctor was suddenly sure that he knew who he was dealing with, a well-known Dalek that had disappeared shortly before the Time War ended.  "Ah, so you must be the Great Strategist." He stated.

 "Affirmative.” 

The Doctor glanced at the silent one and added, "and I guess that would make you the Nanite Controller."

 This one raised the angle of it's eyestalk slightly at the acknowledgement. "You are correct."

 "I'm surprised that Daleks would leave such power in the hands of one individual. Well, not really hands, seeing as you don't have any, but you get the idea."

 "I designed the upgraded models so that only I control them. I learned from my mistake when I was banished to the Asylum."

 "That sounds like a pretty self-serving attitude for a Dalek."

 "Negative. I wanted to use my invention for progress for the Dalek cause. The Emperor did not agree with my approach."

 "Invention? You're the original designer of these things?"

 The Dalek raised its eye stalk slightly again as it stated, "AFFIRMATIVE!" Yeah, this one was definitely proud, bordering on obnoxious arrogance even by its species standards.  The Doctor felt a wave of anger at the thought of this being the mind behind the horrors that were the nanites.

 He glanced back at the Daleks behind him before returning his gaze to the Nanite Controller and asking, "are you really a time war Dalek or did you use your nanites to update your technology?"

 The Dalek stared him directly in the eye and stated, "the answer to your question is irrelevant."

 "No, I don't think it is. Sure, Daleks today don't die of natural causes, but these guys behind me… they should have met old age long before the Time War really got under way. But that would mean you've been updating in a way that most Daleks of a generation would consider disgusting and treacherous."

 "Such behavior leads to stagnation, decay and extinction. I cannot serve Dalek kind if I adhere to such ideals."

 "You must admit, it's not a very common view, though."

 "The common are the first to die in an attack on any species."

 "This conversation is unimportant." The Great Strategist stated.

 The Doctor returned his focus to the Strategist, for a moment, he was tempted to continue his line of conversation, suspicious that the other Dalek had cut it off not because it was unimportant but uncomfortable to consider.  Instead he decided to let the Dalek stew over that itself  and bring up a different topic he was interested in. "I'm surprised that I didn't get a chance to meet you, as much trouble as you were causing my people."

 "I had expected an opportunity to exterminate you myself during the time war. The Time Lords were making a point of insulting me by acting like you weren't necessary to defeat me."

 Sadly, that did sound like them. "Well, clearly you did something to make the Daleks think you didn't belong on the field."

 "They thought I was cognitively impaired when I displayed my findings of what the Time Lord's had as a last resort against us. The plan I described was deemed impossible but I did not agree with the synopsis that the threat was an invalid one."

 The Doctor felt the muscles in his jaw tighten, "you don't mean…"

 "I cannot help but wonder, Doctor… were the Daleks your primary targets for extermination on that final day, or was our destruction an added benefit to saving the universe from your own species." The disgust in the Daleks voice was clear. Daleks would die before they'd destroy their kind. Heck, they would even sacrifice their genetic 'purity' for the sake of species survival, as was evident from their ability to use time traveler DNA to restore them to fighting fitness. He wondered how many Daleks had self-destructed themselves at the end of battles after using the ability he'd seen the soldier use on Rose. For a being to betray their own species was probably beyond comprehension for them.

 "You're right, they were the bigger threat that day. But it was the Time Lords I betrayed, not all of my people. The High Council of the Time Lord's did that." Out of the billions of people on Gallifrey, the actual Time Lords at any given time actually numbered in the thousands. The Final Sanction would have been as damning to most of Gallifrey as it was to the rest of the universe.

 "Your species would have survived."

 The Doctor froze for a moment, "You said you knew what they were planning?"

 The Great Strategist stated, "Affirmative."

 "And what an idea for you. To wipe out everything except one species, not just across space, like the Reality Bomb would have done but through time as well. It's a very Dalek concept, isn't it?" The Doctor asked bitterly. "Heck, they wouldn't even have to leave Gallifrey to do it. They could accomplish it without even exiting the council chambers. The only members of my people that would have survived would have been the ones who thought like yours but were more effective exterminators."

 He gave that a moment to sink in. The Daleks had spent a millennia flying about the universe, exterminating and enslaving races everywhere in their mission to become the dominant species. The Time Lord's were going to do it more completely on a whim without even leaving a room. That type of power should scare them… It certainly terrified him. "I wasn't about to let everyone else on Gallifrey suffer for their survival. Yes, I chose to bring my people death over their erasure from existence. Same for you and the rest of the Universe. If I could have done it without destroying my people, I would have but I couldn't."

 "So the Final Sanction was real?" The Nanite Controller asked as other Daleks twitched agitatedly. "Could we use this technique for ourselves?"

 "No," The Doctor replied easily. He wasn't going to give the Daleks a chance to try to do something stupid in a bid for power and end the whole universe in the attempt. "You…lack a few necessary things to do it. Thank goodness. And if you made Daleks that had them, they wouldn't be Daleks anymore."

 "Then we shall work toward our proper place as masters of universe the ways we always have." The Great Strategist stated.

The Nanite Controller haughtily stated as it hovered toward him, "And thus we will discuss why the Doctor still lives." It glanced at the rotating hologram. "What do you think of my design?"

The Doctor didn't like the almost gleeful tone the Nanite Controller had taken up. Still, he humored it by taking a moment to examine the hologram floating before him. "Is that a new model?"

"Affirmative." The statement almost sounded like a purr. "It is a special design."

"What's so special about it?"

 "It's a transitional unit. Converted individuals from other species will be kept in these until they have been reconditioned. It lacks a gun arm and a self-destruct mechanism. Furthermore, it has monitoring equipment for the individuals within. The Imperial Daleks gave me ideas when they described the most common problems Davros encountered when he created them."

 The Doctor gritted his teeth as he recalled how the Kaled had posed as The Great Healer so that he could get his hands on a steady flow humanoid victims to turn into a fresh batch of Daleks. It didn't surprise him to hear that not all of them accepted the lives he was forcing upon them. "Been having suicide problems, have you? That's hardly surprising, all things considered."

 He could feel the Daleks gaze fall on him as he studied the design. "What?" He asked as it stared at him.

"You do not approve of the transformative properties of the nanites."

"Since when does a Dalek care what I think?" The Doctor asked.

 "Since when does it not matter to us?" The oldest Dalek survivor asked, reminding him of their presence. "How many descriptions of our plans and displays of force have we spent too much time on in your presence, often to the point of giving you the opportunity to overcome us?"

 The Golden Dalek stated, "We've wasted effort trying to interact with you when with any other creature we would have immediately exterminated them."

"You mean bragging, right? All you were doing was showing off your power before going through with your plans to exterminate me."

 "How many beings do you think are considered worthy of such displays, Doctor?"

 "How can you say that?" The Great Strategist inserted angrily. More than a few Daleks monitoring and operating the ship were actually turning their eye stalks to watch as well as listen to the conversation and the Overseers whom would tell them off under other circumstances were too busy engaged in the same activity.

 "We were told to analyze the Doctor in relation to the Daleks. That has meant sacrificing long preconceived notions about the Dalek race. You know what we say is true. Did you not just confess that you desired his presence on the battlefield? If he were anything else, he would not be alive and present now to observe this argument." The elder Dalek stated. "We don't even give treacherous members of Dalek kind this much attention."

 "I would have exterminated him as soon as I approached him on the other side of the Library." A familiar looking gray dalek piped up from the back of the group.

 The Doctor glared at the Daleks whom had brought him here, trying not to let the fear beneath his anger seep through again. There was something far more terrifying about the Daleks admitting that they were out to impress him than that they want to kill him.

 "So, why do you dislike my Nanites?" The Nanite Controller asked again.

He studied the Dalek for a moment longer before stating, "I think that the Nanites are one of your most horrendous inventions yet."

 "I do not understand." The Dalek sounded genuinely confused at his response, maybe even a little hurt, if that was possible. "They do not kill everything. They can even restore the creatures we kill. And when we do not use the robotized individuals, they can continue their lives unhindered. This allows Dalek Kind to triumph without complete Genocide. Was that not what you fought against? Is this not preferable?"

 "No, it is not 'preferable.'" The Doctor was disgusted at the twisted view this Dalek had of his morals. "You take away their freedom, not just to live as they want but to even die. And what about the other path that your Nanites take? Taking people you consider to be of value and turning them into one of you! People like Oswin."

 "Humans did not deserve such a mind to be amongst their species, so we took her from them. We elevate such anomalies above anything they could reach with their original species."

"Elevate them?" The Doctor asked skeptically, his fury and disgust evident in his voice and becoming more obvious as he continued. "You are tearing them down, lower than they should ever be able to fall."

"Daleks are the supreme beings. Daleks are better than all other species."

 "And your ancient predecessors who were trapped in an old city, dependent on static electricity from the floor and radiation from a war millennia past thought of themselves as the best, too. But the truth is, your species represents the lowest point that sentient beings could ever possibly sink. You're so geared for simply surviving that you don't live. A proper Dalek does not feel joy or sadness. They cannot appreciate the beauty of a sunset or feel connected the world around them in any way. No one who knows such things wants to be confined in a metal cage, reduced to feeling nothing but hate and disgust." He sighed, feeling a small amount of pity for these monstrosities as he added, "you lot are so far gone, so utterly broken, you can't even comprehend what you've lost."

 "No Doctor, it is emotions that make other species weak. They make you vulnerable."

 "Really?" The Doctor retorted, his moment of sympathy for these devils quickly evaporating. "Then why have I always been so successful in facing you? If what you say is true, then I should have been dead before I made it to my first regeneration."

 The Dalek studied him for a moment before finally stating, "because you hate us to the point that it can override your other emotions."

 The Doctor smiled and said, "Sorry to break it to you, Sweetheart, but the Daleks aren't my only enemies. I've met stronger ones, many of which I didn't hate and a few I even empathized with and have still defeated. The Time Lords of Gallifrey may be the biggest threats you lot have faced, but we are by no means the most powerful beings in existence."

 "What else is there?"

 This question distracted the Doctor from the staring match he'd been in with the Nanite Controller. The Dalek Strategist had asked the question but all the Daleks in the room seemed suddenly more agitated. The Time Lord supposed hearing his declaration must be horrifying… that there were worse things than they had ever faced.

 "What, you want me to tell you now? But that would spoil the surprises in store for you! Of course, you lot aren't all that keen on surprises, are you?"

"You lie!" The golden Dalek Supreme suddenly piped up, deep voice full of anger.

"Excuse me?" The Doctor asked, incredulously. It was true, he lied a lot. But right now, they should be able to tell from his vitals that his current statement was completely true.

"You cannot have enemies greater than the Daleks!" a gray member of the group of his survivors stated in disbelief.

"We are your ultimate enemies!" As the oldest of the survivors stated this, the others started making similar comments.

 For a moment, the Doctor was confused.  The Daleks rarely openly expressed this level of anger.  Then he understood. Despite the pain from where the golden supreme had grabbed him earlier, he couldn't suppress a chuckle that quickly turned into a cough. After he recovered his breath, he asked, "are you actually jealous?"

 "NEGATIVE," all the Daleks in the room shouted at once, a little too quickly and much too vehemently.

"But you are. You can't stand the idea that your greatest enemy can claim to have greater enemies, himself. Well it's true, I have met people who I consider capable of being more dangerous than any Dalek there currently is or has ever been."

 For a moment the room was silent as the Daleks seethed within their cases.

 Then the Nanite Controller broke the silence by stating, "then we shall rise above them. As you said, our ancestors were once too weak to even leave the walls of a small city to explore Skaro. They improved themselves, even incorporating the minds and labour of lesser beings when necessary."

 "Lesser beings…" The Docor stated, disgusted by the term. "you mean everything that crosses your path which isn't a Dalek."

"Almost everything."

"Almost? You aren't capable of thinking otherwise."

 "Not if we are what most would call sane, Doctor." The Nanite Controller moved closer to him, so that the blue viewport of it's eye stalk was centimeters from him. "But when a creature comes along that slaughters us in numbers comparable to what we do to all other species, it can cause some of us to draw mad conclusions. A great deal of the population of the asylum were sent there as an indirect result of your successes, Doctor."

 The Doctor was too startled by the last statement to respond immediately. Luckily, he didn't have to. "Nanite Controller!" The Great Strategist exclaimed, sounding disgusted by it's statement. "How dare you say something like that? Daleks are…"

 "Meant to be the supreme beings." The Nanite Controller finished, staring the other down as it said, "and to do that we must first acknowledge those that stand in the way of achieving that standard, so that we can deal with them accordingly. Many of the Daleks of the Asylum are capable of enough of unique thought to make that judgement."

 "Since when do Daleks want to be different?"

 "Battle Scarred, Insane, those are the words used to describe the differences. But when lesser species survive invasions from more powerful ones, is it not the unique thinkers and the battle experienced who pull them through. We are the back up. If the rest of our species had been destroyed by the Movellan's viral plagues, lost the Time War or been destroyed by you, the Asylum would have remained. We have already served the purpose on one occasion."

 The Nanite Controller glanced toward the Silver Dalek with back orbs and actively gestured toward the older Dalek model as best as it could with it's plunger. "He is the final remnant of a failed generation that was quickly driven to extinction. If the Asylum hadn't already been in place, then that would have been the last Dalek."

 The Doctor studied it for a moment before the Nanite Controller flew into his view. "But we need perspective, new ways of thinking, survivors. That is where the anomalies of the other species come in. They will provide us with even more new ideas for the improvement of Dalek Kind, once they have been reconditioned."

 "And today, we start with the biggest anomaly of them all." At this, the Dalek once again crowded his personal space. It reached forward with its manipulator arm, almost touching him before pulling back and lifting its eyestalk arrogantly. "The Daleks are great exterminators. If one of us happens to fall after killing a billion lesser life forms, it does not change that."

 Then it landed and looked up at the Doctor, "And yet, when we are defeated again and again, when a billion billion of us fall to one individual, we still refuse to acknowledge the obvious.  Even if one of us were to finally exterminate you, it wouldn't change the truth of the matter.  A truth that we suppress our very logic to avoid."

The Doctor couldn't believe his ears. "Are you actually saying that you think I'm greater than your species?"

 "Of course you are! You aren't just a being, you're a force. The ONCOMING STORM!" It shrieked the title. "You are the Great Exterminator, the most dangerous creature in the universe. A position that should belong to the Daleks and it will," suddenly, the Dalek shrieked, "even if we have to pull you down to our level to climb to the top." With that, it grabbed the band around his wrist. "And I've designed a special set of Nanites to do just that!" And it pulled the wristband shielding the Doctor from its nanites away.

 In the instant before the band completely lost connection, its shield covered both The Doctor and the Nanite Controller, cutting them away from the reach of any nanites. It only lasted for a fraction of a second, but it was long enough.

 "My vision is impaired!" It shrieked. "I cannot see! Why can't I see?!"

 And in that moment, the smallest touch of pity could be heard in the Doctor's voice as he said, "Because you're dead." As he said this, shadows began to unfold from him, like petals of some dark flower.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A few notes:
> 
> Although I know that The Moment was never used, neither the Doctor nor the Daleks are, as this story takes place before the events of “Day of the Doctor” for the Eleventh Doctor.
> 
> With Rusty, we were shown that Daleks have thoughts and memories that contradict with their view of reality suppressed. I can argue it not being here still not interfering with canon because the idea to suppress such thoughts may have arisen to prevent the need for another Dalek Asylum. It would be a much harder for a dalek to go insane if it couldn’t remember the events/thoughts that would drive it there. Plus, I don’t like the idea of the Daleks being stagnant and unchanging, as they weren’t in the original show.
> 
> I hope you enjoyed this chapter. I’ll get the next one up ASAP.


	9. Chapter 9

The Vashta Nerada that had volunteered to go with the Doctor had been hiding under the force field protecting the Doctor so that it also shielded them. The TARDIS's translator circuit had been making everything that the Daleks and Doctor said understandable for them, as it did for the Doctor and his companions.

 

The instant that the Nanite Controller grabbed the shield's generator, they had taken their opportunity. An instant… the amount of time it took to blink an eye, where the nanites were separated from their designer by the force field, was all the time they needed and more.

 

The only reason that the Nanite controller still spoke was that she had enough technology to hold her mind, even after her body had been melted away in that instant. They stripped the Nanite Controller to nothing before it knew what had hit it.

 

A terrible way to go, even for an insane Dalek, the Doctor reflected. At least the Vashta Nerada wouldn't need to keep it to control its machine.

 

As the Vashta Nerada, settled into their control, using the original owners voice, they exclaimed, "Your metal swarm’s queen is now our meat. With her swarm gone, we shall begin the first great hunt we have had in centuries! You and all of your people in our forests are now our m… Why!"

 

If the blood lust in the Vashta Nerada's words had startled him, that last word, gotten through from the original occupant of that machine was horrifying, full of pain and misery. "Let the Dalek go!" The Doctor exclaimed, "You have no need to keep it to work that machine!"

 

"She deserves to suffer for the pain she inflicted on us! She slaughtered our people and she liked it."

 

The Doctor was about to retort when the Great Strategist ordered, "Activate your shields and exterminate the Doctor!" but instead of his own shield coming up, he collapsed, overtaken by the shadows.

 

In the next moment, as the Doctor spun on his heel to face the Daleks who'd brought him here, two grey Daleks collapsed, one of them getting off a shot at him as the others took the moment to activate their shields. In the instant before it would have struck, a familiar sound filled the air, and the TARDIS began to materialize around him, its shield materializing enough to block the shot.

 

Before the TARDIS completely materialized, the gun that had once belonged to the Nanite Controller's Travel Machine fired at one of the Daleks with invisibility capabilities, breaking its force field and doing damage to it, although it continued to hover for a few more moments before the Vashta Nerada took it and started firing on its fellows.

 

Even as the TARDIS materialized, the Doctor could still hear the screams of fury and pain from beyond the Old Girls walls. He turned past the Nanite Controllers Travel Machine to look at the Console, with Clara standing at it.

 

"Good job, both of you," He exclaimed to both the human and the time machine over the exclamations of the angry Daleks outside of the TARDIS's walls as he ran up to the controls and started using levers and buttons, "but we need to get out of here, now!"

 

Within moments, the TARDIS had dematerialized, leaving behind the group of Daleks whom had survived him more than any other to fight with the Vashta Nerada as they used some of their own to fire on them and leaked to other corners of the ship to attack the rest of its occupants.

 

Thus began the Vashta Nerada's Great Hunt of the Daleks.

* * *

 

 

Within moments of the Nanite Controller's fall on her ship, everywhere in the Library where the Vashta Nerada had been trying to fight the Nanite Cloud, the mechanical terror which had been tearing through them fell as if struck down. They scattered in the breeze or settled like dust where there air was still.

 

While some Vashta Nerada rushed back to spread the news that the Nanites had fallen and get reinforcements, others surged forward, eager to strike back at the monsters who dared attack their forests.

 

The Daleks at the edge of the cloud without shielding were the first to feel their wrath, seeing an inky darkness and knowing nothing more. Those with shields and hover technology tried to retreat before the Vashta Nerada gained control of their fallen comrades' technology to fire upon them but few made it out of range in time.

 

Within minutes, the Vashta Nerada with whom the Doctor had discussed his plan with heard the news and activated the interactive technology again. As River's face appeared, they stated through the Dalek translator unit, "The Nanites are down. Have you downloaded enough?"

 

"Yes."

 

* * *

 

"The Nanites are no longer active!" One of the Daleks at the main base called out. The Daleks at the edge of the field with shielding are reporting that Vashta Nerada are attacking, the others are falling silent.

 

"Call for a retreat, but continue gathering information, it will take several hours for the Vashta Nerada to reach us here. Collect as much information as you can before we must evacuate!"

 

"We obey!"

 

This continued for a few minutes before another Dalek called out, "The code we noted earlier is shifting."

 

Then a Dalek looking through the data came across a line of coding that seemed excess, like the rest, but very different. Suddenly comprehending what it was seeing, it stated, in a terrified tone, "That is not just a code."

 

This Dalek had been one of a collection of individuals studied in the design of the members of the Cult of Skaro, due to his abilities to accurately compare mental types of enemies to the type of technologies and computer systems they might produce. Despite this ability, it was considered deficient in other ways and sent to the Asylum because Daleks were not designed to work that way.

 

It quickly removed a small snippet of the "excess data" which contained the normal, smaller pattern from the Library's Index Computer as it turned to the Dalek leading the operation and stated. "We must evacuate, now! The computer is not just storing data, it has live creatures! We have minutes at best."

 

"What does this mean? Explain!"

 

"The Computer teleporters are downloading Vashta Nerada into the mainframe. It can release them to any other teleportation devices on the planet. The system has had ample time to gather enough of the swarm to destroy our bases in approximately a hundred wells.

 

At that moment, one of the other Daleks called out, "teleporters in strategically vulnerable positions throughout the Library are activating."

 

Another called out, "The random coding that was interfering with our information gathering appears to be deleting itself."

 

"It's being unleashed, not deleted." The Dalek whom had stated its theory about the code stated.

 

The Dalek in charge of the hacking looked at the one who'd just spoken of what the code was, trying to come to a decision. Finally, it turned back at the rest of the team. "Pull out and retreat."

 

"But we are not done collecting data," one of the Daleks stated even as a couple others shouted their obedience and took off.

 

Then they heard some mechanical screams from the direction of the teleporters… the direction that the Doctor had come from earlier. Of course it would be from there, an irrational part of the hacker's mind added, the Oncoming Storm was the bringer of death and destruction, and it only made sense that their death would follow his path.

 

Within moments, from that side of the room an inky black darkness began to pour forth. The Lights on the far side of the room began going out as Daleks screamed. For most it was the last sound they made, but in a few cases, especially among the Time War age Daleks, calls came forward from that darkness. "My vision is impaired." "I cannot see!" "What is happening?" "Explain!" "Explain!"

 

In either case, the fallen travel machines began firing on those yet to be touched.

 

"Evacuate!" The commanding Dalek called out and all the Daleks that the quickly expanding dark cloud had not reached began to flee. Those that could not rise were quickly lost to the darkness and as those that could fly rose, they had to dodge the barrage of laser fire from below, from the Vashta Nerada controlled travel machines.

 

All over the planet, similar events were taking place. Millions of Daleks died in moments, easily defeated by Vashta Nerada that Cal had saved in dense numbers on her database to release at once when she found out the nanites had been shut down, just as the Doctor had suggested.

 

Thousands would escape. A good portion of these would be specially upgraded Daleks, including the Special Weapons Soldiers, whom had been imbued with special shielding, as they had always been obvious targets for enemy forces, including other Dalek factions.

* * *

 

The Nanite Controller felt her travel machine turn as if of its own accord and fire her blaster, followed by a cry of agony. Then, through her own luminosity dischargers, with her own voice, the Vashta Nerada began to speak, she could feel the swarm's fury now, as they held her slave to their bidding.

 

Somewhere in the back of her quickly deteriorating mind, she realized that the feeling she was experiencing was helplessness, that thing their enemies and slaves were supposed to feel in their presence. It wasn't nearly as enjoyable to be on this end of the experience.

 

The Nanite Controller heard the shields come up on the other Daleks. The Great Strategist yelled, "You will be exterminated."

The Nanite Controller looked forward to oblivion, anything to escape the fresh hell she'd found herself in. But even as they opened fire, another sound filled the air, the wheezing groan that had haunted the worst nightmares of all her species and the sound of her kind were almost completely muffled through walls the Doctors big blue…what? What was it called?

 

Come to think of it, what were the things screaming "exterminate" called. Shouldn't she know that, wasn't she one of them? She was, wasn't she?

 

"Why?" she cried out again of her own free will, but this time to ask about her fading mind.

"The Nanite Controller's still there?"

"Yes," the angry swarm used her voice to reply.  "She deserves…"

 

She took control for a moment. Long enough to scream two words that she understood could release her, even if she barely knew what they meant anymore, "Exterminate me."

 

"I'm sorry." A voice, whom ever it might belong to, said and even in her failing state, these two words seemed important coming from their source. Even now, she knew he was important. "There's nothing I can do for you."

 

"Why?" She cried out again, not even understanding what she was asking anymore.

"Let the Nanite Controller go." The voice ordered.

 

And with that, everything faded out completely.

****


	10. Chapter 10

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Loose Ends are tied up

As The Doctor punched in the coordinates to return to the spot where he had landed when he first came back to the Library, he looked at Clara and asked, "Are you alright?"

 "Yeah. The teleporter took me right back to the TARDIS. She told me how to fly, and we came to rescue you. What happened? One moment you were jumping into the teleporter with me and the next, you were gone." The silence filled the void between them for a beat.

 "The Daleks wanted me to stick around for a while." The Doctor said as he placed one hand on the TARDIS, taking comfort in the heightened connection between them. "They generally have a habit of making sure they get what they want." The Doctor fell silent for a moment, thinking about what they had planned to do to him as he pressed the button to launch her. "I don't think this lot's done with me yet."

 "Well, they are for now, right?" Clara asked as the familiar groaning filled the air around them.

 The Doctor nodded. "The Nanite Controller was all that was supporting their nanites. Without it to maintain them, the Daleks won't be able to hold back the Vashta Nerada any longer. They can either run or die. Most of the ones who can't fly or don't have technology to survive the vacuum of space will do the latter but some will still get away. Probably several thousands." He sighed tiredly.

 "That's still a lot better than millions, isn't it?"

 The Doctor nodded as his beloved time machine landed with a thump. Then he shook off his dreary mood and clapped his hands. "Okay. This is a message for all the Vashta Nerada guests." he called out to the surrounding darkness. "We're back in the Library now. Your ride in the TARDIS is over and you can go home now. I'll leave the door open for you, while Clara and I take care of a few things and I expect you all to be gone when I get back."

 Even as they walked toward the door, the room was darkening around them. It lightened up the moment he snapped his fingers, opening the doors and releasing them back into the Library, a group even wheeling out the Nanite Controller’s travel machine..

 Just outside the door were the Vashta Nerada in the other Dalek travel machine. Before they began to talk, the doctor asked "Are you speaking to me with your own voices or are you holding the Dalek's mind hostage?"

 "This particular design of the communication device allows us to speak without use of the original occupants mind and the machinery was not complicated enough to hold it here."

 The Doctor relaxed and asked, "Are the Daleks leaving?"

"Yes. Your plan to use Cal's system to expand the hunt worked well. We were able to chase down all the Daleks much quicker than we would have otherwise. We have all been released through the teleporters and the Daleks will either flee or fall as our prey."

"Good. I'm glad to hear it. Speaking of which," He turned to his companion and said, "Clara, I'm going to pop into the teleporter for a few minutes, I'll be back soon." 

"Where are you going?"

 "Oh, just to check and make sure the computer's systems are alright," The Doctor stated with a smile as he pointed his sonic at the machine. "I'll be back before you know it." Then he thought again and said, "actually, it might be a little while, now that I think about it but still, don't worry about me. Everything's fine."

 The Doctor stepped into the teleporter and soon found himself standing in what seemed like a large lawn leading up to a sprawling building. He smiled when he saw the greeting party. Cal, a serious looking man and his River.

 "Hello, Sweetie."

 "River." He said as he ran up and embraced her. "Those Daleks didn't cause you too much trouble, I hope."

 "Oh, they were a bit of a bother but we got through it, didn't we?" She looked pointedly at the people behind her as she said this and they smiled.

 "Cal, it's good to see you again." The Doctor said as he walked over to the little girl. "And this time, I can actually shake your hand. Nice virtual reality, by the way." To be honest, seeing this, he couldn't help but be reminded of the Matrix on Gallifrey. It was similar in many ways. Still, now was not the time for getting depressed. 

She took the offered hand with a smile and said, "I've read your books."

"The ones about me or the one's I've written?"

The little girl smiled and said "both. You're joke book about the history of the universe was great."

The Doctor grinned back before looking at the man next to her, "And who might you be?"

"Dr. Moon," He stated and offered his hand.

 "Dr. Moon. Oh, you're the Doctor Moon that I saw that first time I was here, aren't you. Great signal interference, not many things can do that to my sonic screwdriver. It's a pleasure to actually meet you."

 He stepped back beside River as he asked, "so, are you two going to be alright?"

 "We survived the Daleks attack. A lot of our systems were damaged but the Vashta Nerada have said they'll help fix things until the self-repair systems are operational enough to take over. It will take a while, but we think we can get everything working again eventually," Doctor Moon stated.

 "That's great." The Doctor said.

 "Then I'm going to try to talk to the Vashta Nerada about maybe letting people come here again," Cal said. "Maybe they'll be willing to open up to becoming a part of the system and we could actually open the Library again one day."

 "That's a lot of work, you know," The Doctor stated.

"If we can handle the Daleks together, I'm sure we can do anything else we want to."

 The Doctor smiled and said, "Look at you. You've just had the Daleks beating at your gate, had the voices of millions of Vashta Nerada coursing through your head and already you're talking about hope for the future. Humans! You lot are amazing, you know that. If I could, I would offer you the chance to ride with me in my TARDIS right now."

 Cal and Dr. Moon both smiled at him. The man finally said, "Come on Cal, we have some work to finish and I'm sure that River and The Doctor have a lot of catching up to do before the Doctor leaves." He glanced up and said, "Just say that you're ready to go and you'll be teleported right to where you left."

 The Doctor nodded and smiled before the man lead the child toward a nearby road.

After a moment, he turned to River and said, "So, what do you want to do, now?"

 "Well…"Suddenly, they were in a house and although he knew it couldn't have happened in the split second his time senses indicated, he remembered having a lovely walk there with River, excited about spending time together alone. He smiled at her again and said, "I missed you so much. So, how were the Singing Towers of Derillium?"

 "Spoilers," River replied.

 It was a couple hours later when the Doctor finally returned to the teleporter, happy that he got to spend more time with River but was sad that it was over, probably for good this time on her end.

 

* * *

 

 

He stepped out to find Clara, the Vashta Nerada in the Travel Machines and Cal's face on the interface all chatting away. It looked like it was more social than business and for the first time, he actually believed that the Library could open again one day.

 "I'm back," he called out, to which all of the participants in the conversation looked back at him.

 "I suppose we ought to get going," Clara said. "I've got papers that need grading and students that need teaching." She looked back at the others and said, "It was nice to meet you all."

 "You, too," Cal stated.

"We hope to hunt with you again." The Vashta Nerada stated before adding, "You as well, Doctor."

"Goodbye," Cal said to both of them, "have fun."

The Doctor smiled and said, "Good luck to all of you."

As he and Clara entered the TARDIS, he asked, "Have all the Vashta Nerada gone home."

 The TARDIS gave an affirmative, though something felt odd about it. He quickly marked it off as his psychic senses still settling after dealing with being digitized for hours and went to the controls.

 "So, are we heading home?" Clara asked watching the Doctor.

"Just after one quick stop." The Tardis took off and quickly landed with a thump. "Five hundred years in the future, that should do it."

 "For what?" Clara asked as she followed the Doctor to the doors of the TARDIS.

 The Time Lord snapped his fingers and the doors opened to reveal a surprised person sitting on a couch with a book in his hand. He poked his head out to see a few more people in the room, all startled by the box that materialized out of nowhere.

 "Is this still the Library?" He asked the guy on the couch.

"What?"

"Are we in the Library? I don't always land where I mean to."

The man, who now looked more confused than scared, finally nodded.

"And you're all guests here?" The Doctor Continued.

"Yes." The man said, confused.

 He saw the shadows gathering in the corners and noticed that, while people seemed a little off set about it, they weren't running for their lives. The Doctor smiled and said, "They did it. Excellent." Then he quickly said to the man, "Thanks for your help. Enjoy your time here."

 He closed the Door and the TARDIS dematerialized, leaving the people in the room confused as to what the just saw and the local Vashta Nerada relieved that nothing was about to happen, as their trees seemed to hint often did when the time lord showed up.

 Some of the people would later look up information about a man in a blue box and realized that they had just met a legend.

 

* * *

 

Meanwhile, deep in the TARDIS, a small shadow that had been trapped in a loop suddenly found itself in a garden. The Vashta Nerada decided they could settle in here, amongst the plants and the insects and live just fine. Within a day, eggs would be laid and the first generation of TARDIS born Vashta Nerada would soon be underway, all with a deep telepathic connection to Sexy herself.

 The TARDIS was proud of the environment she had made within her. She could see that the Vashta Nerada would make a nice addition to her collection of plants and animals from multiple planets, which were mainly kept in secret gardens beyond where the Doctor wondered. They would eventually grow in numbers to become a good defense and repair system, treating entropy issues that had been plaguing her for millennia now.

 In return, she would happily provide them with food, a place to live, books and entertainment to keep their culture intact and the freedom to wonder around and occasionally leave her walls.

 And as long as they were willing to leave her thief alone, she was happy to take them with her. By the time he found out, the Vashta Nerada would already be too settled into their home and had spent generations getting exposed to the Vortex to the point where dumping them on a planet in large numbers was not safe to do at all.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, that’s it. I don’t know for sure if I’ll write a sequel or not but I’m glad I was able to finish this one. I hope that you enjoyed the story.


End file.
